Joanne Bass is chief master sergeant of the Air Force. In November 2020, Sgt. Bass published a post on her official Facebook page encouraging readers to reflect on the things for which they were thankful.
Richard Rynearson is a retired Air Force command pilot and field-grade officer. He believes Air Force leadership has emphasized cultural sensitivity issues — i.e., wokeness — to the point that it is undermining the strength and character of the Air Force.
Accordingly, he responded to Bass that he was thankful other branches of the military were concentrating on conducting warfare so that the Air Force could concentrate on “making sure we all feel good about ourselves” and that “nobody is offended or feels like a victim.” I hope Rynearson is right about the other branches.
Bass objected to Rynearson’s comment. Within hours, she deleted all of his comments from the page and banned him from commenting further there.
Rynearson objected to this obvious infringement on his right to free speech. He tried repeatedly to contact Bass, but received no response. Therefore, he decided to take legal action.
In August 2021, The Center for Individual Rights (on whose board I serve) filed a federal lawsuit challenging the ban on Rynearson. As Terry Pell, the Center’s president, observes in this Wall Street Journal op-ed, courts have consistently ruled that official government social-media pages are public forums, and thus that the government may not deny anyone access for expressing a viewpoint. For example, former president Trump’s attempt to ban certain commenters from his Twitter feed was deemed unconstitutional by a federal appeals court.
Now, a year after the suit was filed, the Justice Department has agreed to a settlement that restores Rynearson’s access to the chief master sergeant’s Facebook page. The Air Force also agreed to alter its policy to reflect that no one shall be denied access to its social-media outlets based on their viewpoint.
This is a clear victory for speech. As Terry explains:
Social media has become an important way for citizens to engage in free and open discussion with government officials. As new social-media platforms emerge and others gain audience and influence, it will be vital for the courts to reaffirm the rights of individuals, regardless of their point of view, to engage freely on government-run web pages.
Litigation is an important vehicle for vindicating free speech rights in cases like Rynearson’s in which woke government officials try to curb these rights. The Center for Individual Rights is in the forefront of fighting this battle. .
However, the woke mindset permeates the federal government to such a degree that protecting free expression of traditional viewpoints will require replacing this Democratic president with a Republican who understands the stakes and whose staff is willing relentlessly to combat woke bureaucrats and uphold free speech.