Christopher Garnier; Kimberly Garnier v. Michelle O'Connor Ratcliff; T.j. Zane

Los Angeles, California civil rights lawyers represented the parties in a 42 U.S.C. 1983.



Christopher and Kimberly Garnier brought this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 suit challenging the actions of Michelle

O'Connor-Ratcliff and T.J. Zane, members of the Poway Unified School District ("PUSD” or "the District”) Board of Trustees. O'Connor-Ratcliff and Zane (collectively referred to as "the Trustees”) used their public Facebook and Twitter

pages to post about goings-on at PUSD and their activities as Trustees. In response to the Garniers' numerous critical

and often repetitive comments on the Trustees' social media pages, the Trustees deleted or hid the Garniers' comments.

Later, the Trustees began blocking the Garniers from interacting on their social media accounts altogether. The

Garniers brought suit under § 1983, alleging that the Trustees' actions violated the Garniers' First Amendment rights.



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Following a bench trial, the district court agreed with the Garniers and awarded them declaratory and injunctive relief. We affirmed that judgment, and the Trustees appealed to the Supreme Court.