* Click here to read the full lawsuit. Center Square…

The former Republican Illinois Attorney General candidate is taking the Illinois House Minority Leader to federal court over alleged censorship on her social media page used to communicate government business.

An attorney representing Thomas DeVore, who ran unsuccessfully for AG in 2022, filed the lawsuit Monday in the Northern District of Illinois federal court, alleging Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, is censoring DeVore. […]

A spokesperson for McCombie said they will defend the lawsuit.

“This is a politically motivated legal filing and we look forward to vigorously defending the complaint in court,” the spokesperson told The Center Square Monday evening.

* From the lawsuit…

Defendant McCombie was first elected to the Illinois House of Representatives, and took office on January 11, 2017. Defendant McCombie created her first Facebook Page when she was running for the office of State Representative. This Page was created on May 19, 2015 and was titled as “Tony McCombie for State Representative 71st District”. On November 17, 2016, after winning her election as state representative, McCombie changed the name of the Page to be simply “Tony McCombie”, which appears to be the page name today. This Page appears at the URL www.facebook.com/McCombieforIllinois

OK, on the face of it, that’s a campaign page.

Back to the suit…

Leader McCombie has utilized this Facebook Page to discuss government business and to interact with users about government business since taking office in January 2017. (Hereinafter this Page will be referred to as the “Primary Public Forum”).

You can talk about some government issues on a campaign page. You cannot post about campaign issues on a government page. It’s like how you can use campaign funds to support your district office operations, but you can’t use your state district office allowance to subsidize your campaign operation.

* Back to the suit…

McCombie created an additional public forum of Facebook on September 16, 2024. This Page is labelled “Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie.” The Page appears at www.facebook.com/IllinoisHouseMinorityLeader This Page only has a few hundred followers compared to the Primary Public Forum which has over 17,000 followers. (Hereinafter, this page will be referred to as her “Secondary Public Forum”) […]

For the very first time on January 10, 2025, only after citizens began questioning her blocking and censuring of citizens, including the Plaintiff, on her Primary Public Forum, did McCombie make a public Facebook post on her Primary Public Forum attempting to deflect the criticism of her constituents regarding her blocking of constituents. In these Facebook communication on or about January 10, 2025, she for the first time makes inferences that the Primary Public Forum was not her official page and that it was only her Secondary Public Forum where she could not ban citizens, or otherwise restrict their speech. […]

DeVore expressed critical viewpoints of Leader McCombie’s political actions on her Primary Public Forum in response to Facebook post(s) she had made about government business. As a result of DeVore’s expression of these critical viewpoints, Leader McCombie has banned him completely from her Primary Public Forum and has otherwise deleted his comments. As such, his comments are no longer viewable by the general public, including the over 17,000 followers of Leader McCombie’s Primary Public Forum.

DeVore has frequently posted on his own Facebook page about McCombie’s vote for a bill that prevented health insurance companies from denying certain medical coverage based on an officially changed birth certificate. More on that here.

Just saying, but sometimes when people can’t win races against the other party, they turn on their own party.

* Politico…

The GOP leader is just the latest elected official to be sued for allegedly blocking opinions posted on social media. President-elect Donald Trump was sued in 2017 for blocking critics on what was then Twitter. The case ultimately went to the Supreme Court and was dismissed.

In another case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on when public officials’ social media posts are official, via POLITICO.

Closer to home: Chicago Ald. Jim Gardiner (45th) recently agreed to pay $157,500 to settle a lawsuit filed by critics blocked from his Facebook page.

And a case is pending against state Rep. Charlie Meier, a Republican from Okawville, for hiding “critical” comments on his Facebook page. The case was filed by four people who claimed their First Amendment rights were violated. Their attorney: DeVore.

Anyway, it’s in a judge’s hands now.