ACLU sues Peoria for going after owner of parody Twitter account
Source: Peoria Journal Star
City officials who chose retribution instead of protecting the constitutional rights of a citizen who created a parody Twitter account of the mayor need to be corrected by a federal judge.
Thats the goal of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Jon Daniel, the creator of the @peoriamayor account, said an attorney for the ACLU at a news conference Thursday detailing the suit.
Your city fathers need a lesson, said Harvey Grossman, the legal director of the ACLU of Illinois. The speech that Jon engaged in was clearly protected.
This did not require a constitutional scholar.
... Daniel created the @peoriamayor Twitter account in March using a photo of Ardis and tweeted about sex, drugs and a profane pride in the city of Peoria. City officials noticed it almost immediately and took measures to shut it down, from threatening Twitter with a lawsuit to applying a misdemeanor charge of impersonating a public official to the situation to obtain search warrants for the account and, ultimately, Daniels home.
Read more: http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140612/NEWS/140619670