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Cheyenne, WY — Harry Pollak can finally criticize Sheridan County school officials without fear of censorship.
That long-awaited victory came late Friday, when the Judge Alan B. Johnson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming granted summary judgment in Pollak v. Wilson, et al. The case, led by attorneys from the Institute for Free Speech, began after a concerned parent sued the Sheridan County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees for violating his First Amendment rights by censoring his criticism of a school official during a public meeting.
In February 2022, Pollak attempted to address the board to respond to statements made by the superintendent at a previous meeting. However, the board chair cut him off, claiming that mentioning the superintendent violated the board’s rule against discussing “personnel matters.” The chair ordered Pollak to stop speaking, and the superintendent called the police to escort him out of the building.
Now, over two years later, Pollak's right to speak has finally been vindicated.
Last Friday’s order held that while boards may restrict discussion of genuine personnel matters, using such policies to broadly exclude all speakers who mention individual employees is “unreasonable and unconstitutional.” The court also held that the board chair, Susan Wilson, violated the First Amendment by invoking the personnel rule to stop him from making critical comments.
The order permanently enjoins the board from enforcing its policy to exclude speakers solely for referring to individual employees and awarded Pollak $17.91 in nominal damages, the symbolic amount referencing the year of the First Amendment's ratification. The court also ordered the board to pay Pollak’s costs and attorney’s fees.
As the judge’s order explained, “enforcing the Policy against Mr. Pollak because his comments were ‘critical’ but not enforcing it against others whose viewpoints were positive constitutes viewpoint discrimination, which is a violation of the First Amendment.” He added that the policy “also runs into constitutional hot water because it is enforced unpredictably.”
“I am grateful to the Institute for Free Speech for their unwavering support and dedication to the defense of my First Amendment rights," said Harry Pollak. “This victory sends a clear message that public officials cannot use rules like these to suppress dissent and evade accountability. I hope my case encourages others to speak up without fear of censorship or retaliation.”
“The government cannot silence criticism or censor speech it does not like,” said Institute for Free Speech Senior Attorney Brett Nolan. “The court recognized that the school board's misuse of its personnel rule was an attempt to circumvent the First Amendment. We are pleased that the court has vindicated Mr. Pollak's rights, struck down the unconstitutional application of this speech restriction, and ensured that this policy can’t be used to infringe on speech rights in the future."
The victory for Pollak comes on the heels of a similar win by the Institute in the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit—a case the judge relied on in the order—to demonstrate that blanket policies prohibiting speakers from mentioning specific individuals at school board meetings are unconstitutionally unreasonable and lead to “unpredictable and haphazard enforcement.”
To read the full order with the judge’s reasoning in the case, Pollak v. Wilson, et al., click here. To read more about the case, please see the case page on our website here.
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