(The Center Square) – A North Carolina county commission violated a citizen’s First Amendment rights when it banned him from speaking at meetings for three months, according to a federal lawsuit filed by a nonprofit group.
The Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners made the decision after James Campbell spoke at an April 15 meeting of the board, according to the Liberty Justice Center’s litigation filed on behalf of Campbell.
Campbell urged the commission to investigate the county’s child protection service and cited concern by name about certain county officials, according to the lawsuit.
The commissioners say Campbell violated a county rule about “naming names” and removed him from the meeting, while banning him from speaking at future meetings for 90 days, the lawsuit states.
Campbell has requested to see the policy in writing, but the commissioners haven’t yet produced it says Buck Dougherty, the senior counsel for the Justice Center.
“We believe this a clear, content-based restriction, which violates the First Amendment,” Dougherty told The Center Square. “Cabarrus County is regulating the content of what citizens can and cannot say. The U.S. Supreme Court said decades ago that any content-based restriction is disfavored.”
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.
“The Board of Commissioners violated my free speech so they could avoid public criticism and accountability,” Campbell said in a statement. But I know my constitutional rights and I’m ready to fight this abuse of power.”
The issue was not Campbell’s criticism but his naming of county employees in his statement, County Commission Chairman Steve Morris told The Center Square.
“As I recall the issue was Mr. Campbell calling out Child Protective Services employees by name,” he said. “This was immediately after hearing our rules prohibiting that activity being explained to a public comment speaker preceding him. There was no issue with any comments made about any individual commissioner or the commissioners as a group. We are quite accustomed to such activity.”
The lawsuit seeks to have the county’s policy against naming employees in public comments declared unconstitutional. Campbell was simply criticizing a public official, which he has the right to do, Dougherty said.
“This lawsuit is not just to vindicate my rights – it’s a fight to prevent this board’s policies from stifling and silencing other Cabarrus County residents,” Campbell said.
