On The Front Lines
Rutherford Institute Defends Virginia Blogger, Files Free Speech Lawsuit in Fluvanna County Over Unconstitutional Seal Ordinance
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA -- Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have filed a First Amendment lawsuit against Fluvanna County, Virginia, challenging a County ordinance that makes it a crime for any member of the public to display the County's seal without the authorization of the County. The civil rights action, filed on behalf of blogger Bryan Rothamel in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, charges that the ordinance is overbroad and prohibits a substantial amount of constitutionally-protected speech, such as the accurate depiction in a news report of a county official speaking with the seal in the background or in a parody or editorial cartoon. Institute attorneys are asking the court to declare the ordinance unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, both on its face and as applied to Rothamel's news reporting activities.
A copy of the complaint can be found here.
"Criminalizing First Amendment activities is a grotesque violation of our constitutional right to free expression," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "Government officials should know better. Such censorship has no place in a free society."
Since October 2009, Bryan Rothamel has operated a blog entitled "FLUCO" (http://flucoblog.com) in which he writes and reports about news and other events occurring in Fluvanna County and its environs, as well as the activities of the Fluvanna County government. In connection with relevant reports and articles, Rothamel occasionally includes an image of the County's seal to illustrate the subject of the article. Rothamel also includes verbatim news releases from the County which he scans onto the website.
The complaint filed in federal court alleges that when the County's Board of Supervisors learned that the seal was appearing on Rothamel's website, the Board directed the County attorney to draft an ordinance prohibiting such use. According to the Complaint, the County Board sought this prohibition even though Rothamel does not profit from the use of the seal in connection with blog entries and, with the exception of scanned verbatim County news releases, does not suggest that his writing is an official statement of the County.
On September 15, 2010, the County Board adopted an ordinance declaring the County seal to be the property of the County and providing that "[n]o person, entity or organization shall exhibit, display, or in any manner utilize the seal or any copy, replication, facsimile or representation of the seal, . . ., unless such use shall have been expressly authorized by the board of supervisors." The ordinance makes any unauthorized display a Class 1 misdemeanor, which carries a sentence of up to 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500, and subjects the violator to civil liability.
In filing suit against the County, Rutherford Institute attorneys charge that the seal ordinance has chilled Rothamel's ability to exercise his First Amendment right to free expression. Moreover, the complaint alleges that the ordinance was largely adopted in an effort to restrict Rothamel's blogging activities.
