Judge Ruled Liking Facebook Page Not Protected Speech

Norfolk, Virginia - A federal judge in Virginia ruled today that "liking" a Facebook page is not considered speech protected by the First Amendment.  Plaintiffs were employees at the Hampton Sheriff's Office.  During re-election of Sheriff B.J. Roberts, the plaintiffs "liked" the opponent, Jim Adams' Facebook page.  After Roberts won the election, he terminated the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs argued that their terminations violated their First Amendment rights and sued the Sheriff.  They claimed that the Sheriff terminated them in retaliation for their exercise of their right to freedom of speech when they chose to support the Sheriff's opponent in the election.  It was the court's conclusion that merely "liking" a Facebook page is insufficient speech to merit constitutional protection.   Although courts in the past have found that constitutional speech protections extended to Facebook posts, those involved actual statements that had been made. The court declined to "infer the actual content of [plaintiff's] posts from one click of a button on [a] Facebook page."  Bland v. Roberts, 4:11cv45 (E.D. Va. Apr. 24, 2012).