OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — In exclusive interview with KMTV, Lisa Kilker said she filed a lawsuit against Omaha Mayor John Ewing, saying her First Amendment rights were violated when someone blocked her from his official mayoral Facebook page.
Lisa Kilker lives downtown and is a vocal advocate for the residents of the Regis Building, which is next to the months-old sinkhole on 16th Street.
"We just feel betrayed," Kilker said.
For a long time she was supportive of the mayor, even taking this photo with him at the sinkhole during the mayor's campaign. But after months of waiting for repairs, she said she started posting about the sinkhole and what she and her neighbors are dealing with, tagging his pages and commenting.
"When you are a leader it's part and parcel that you are going to get some negative feedback here and there and the whole point is to deal with it, to handle it, not delete it and ignore it," Kilker said.
She noticed last week she could no longer see his page, the screen appearing like this.
"This is absolutely unacceptable for a leader to be doing stuff like this. He needs to, you know, hear our complaints, he needs to be understanding and he is not," Kilker said.
Creighton Law Professor Paul McGreal told reporter Molly Hudson a recent Supreme Court case gives guidance on issues like this. And they typically look at two things: Does the person have the authority to speak on behalf of the government and are they?
That includes determining if the page is an official government profile. Molly scrolled all the way to the bottom, and posts don't start until he was officially sworn in in June.
"If it is his official page, then blocking members of the public from access to those official communications would likely violate the First Amendment," McGreal said.
The city responded with a brief statement saying it has received the lawsuit and will respond accordingly.
Also important to note: after this lawsuit was filed, someone with access to the mayor's Facebook page unblocked her.
But Lisa says that won't change things with the lawsuit.
"I want the courts to hear my opinion and my voice and let other leaders, not just in Omaha but in this country, know that you cannot silence your constituents," Kilker said.
Tuesday evening Ewing made a post on his mayoral Facebook page saying the page is designed to share updates and going forward will have a no comments policy, directing neighbors to the mayor's hotline for input.
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