Free Speech Suit to Get New Lower Court Look After SCOTUS Trip

The Port Huron, Mich., city manager whose social media activity drew high court scrutiny saw the case remanded to the district court by the Sixth Circuit on Wednesday.

James Freed deleted comments Kevin Lindke left on his Facebook page that were critical of the city’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and later blocked Lindke from accessing the page at all, according to the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Lindke argued this violated his First Amendment rights.

The Sixth Circuit initially said Freed hadn’t engaged in state action by deleting and blocking Lindke, but the US Supreme Court ...