Let’s talk about free speech.
If you don’t want to hear from someone on Facebook, you can block them.
Sick of seeing someone’s comments on X, formerly known as Twitter? You can block them, too.
You can ban anyone you want from your social media pages, but it’s not so simple if you’re an elected official.
They can block users or delete comments from their personal social media pages, the U.S. Supreme Court said in a unanimous decision last year. But if a public official uses a personal page for public business, it’s a different story.
“An official cannot insulate government business from scrutiny by conducting it on a personal page,” it said.
That decision may soon be put to the test here in New Jersey.
A Park Ridge resident said he was blocked, and his comments deleted, from the Facebook page of Mike Ghassali, the mayor of neighboring Montvale.
Howard Fredrics said he followed the page to stay connected to what was happening in the community.
“I have always maintained a polite demeanor in my comments, even though I have strongly disagreed with Mayor Ghassali’s positions,” Fredrics said.
Portrait of Howard Fredrics in his home in Park Ridge on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. Jeff Rhode | For NJ Advance Media
Ghassali, a supporter of President Donald Trump, has been in the news a lot since his failed GOP primary bid to challenge Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-5th Dist., in 2020.
Last fall, the Montvale mayor spearheaded a lawsuit that was joined by 25 other municipalities to challenge an affordable housing law.
During the drone craze last December, Ghassali caught some nationwide fame — complete with appearances on CNN, NBC, Newsmax and others — when he made an emergency declaration of a “No Fly Zone For Drones” over his town.
Fredrics objected to the policy, saying a no-fly zone could pose a risk to residents even though the mayor advised, at the end of his post, that residents not discharge their weapons.
Fredrics also disagreed with the mayor’s decision to raise the American flag at borough hall to full-staff for Trump’s inauguration, which fell during the 30-day mourning period for President Jimmy Carter.
The mayor shot back at those who disagreed with him. “Those who exercised their first amendment right and sent me colorful messages, your apology is accepted,” he posted on Jan. 20.
The mayor’s First Amendment comment is ironic, Fredrics said, because the mayor blocked him from the page in what Fredrics called a breach of his own First Amendment rights.
Fredrics asked borough officials to reinstate him to the page.
“I received a call back from the borough administrator, Joseph Voytus, who maintains the position that the mayor’s Facebook page is managed privately by the mayor and that the borough has no control over it,” Fredrics said. “That is patently untrue.”
WHOSE PAGE IS IT?
It’s all about free speech.
The Supreme Court said an official’s decision to remove someone from a social media page can be a First Amendment violation “if the official had actual authority to speak on the government’s behalf, and the official purported to exercise that authority when he or she engaged in the social media activity,” said Brian Block, a partner in the litigation department at Mandelbaum Barrett PC in Roseland.
“Whether a particular social media activity will satisfy the test can turn on, for example, how a social media page is labeled — official versus private — how the official uses the page, the content and purpose of particular posts, and other relevant factors,” Block said.
Ghassali’s page — facebook.com/MayorGhassali — is classified as a “Government Official” page. It displays the mayor’s work email, the town’s website and all the posts appear to be notifications related to the town, from local events to car accidents to ribbon-cutting ceremonies.
While it also says, “This is my personal page to share information,” the Bamboozled column could not find any personal posts on the page.
Ghassali also has a second Facebook page. This one is not classified as a “Government Official” page. Some posts are political. Some are photos of meat on a barbecue. It’s unclear if there are other posts marked private.
When the town refused to take any action, Fredrics’ attorney sent a letter citing the Supreme Court free speech case and requested Fredrics be reinstated.
“The Court provided extensive guidance on distinguishing between a page operated by a public employee speaking within his capacity as such, and someone speaking in his personal capacity who happens to be a public employee,” the attorney wrote. “The Mayor’s website checks every box required to prove it is official.”
No one responded, so Fredrics asked Bamboozled for help.
THE RESPONSE
After we reviewed the mayor’s two Facebook pages and screenshots that Fredrics took of his comments before they were deleted, we asked the mayor whether he would consider reinstating Fredrics.
“No!” Ghassali said in an email. “He was spreading lies, picking on my residents and forcing them to fight back, all on my page.”
We looked back at the deleted comments provided by Fredrics, which Fredrics acknowledged were probably incomplete because some were deleted before he could take screenshots.
Of the sample posts we saw, some were certainly contentious, but we didn’t see lies or threats.
“He can practice all the free speech he wants on his own page,” Ghassali said. “This is my personally created page, it is not controlled by the town, no posts are made by the town, it is completely mine and I post what and when I want on anything that I want.”
“My decision stands as it is,” he said, declining to discuss how the “Government Official” page compares to his other Facebook page.
Hours later, Voytus, the borough administrator, emailed to say Montvale has one official web page and one official Facebook account, and that the mayor’s page is a “personal and/or political page that is not owned or operated by the Borough.”
He shared a copy of a letter from the borough attorney to Fredrics’ attorney dated March 25. (Fredrics’ attorney said he received it via email on April 2, about 45 minutes before Voytus responded to Bamboozled. Go figure. He did not receive an earlier email or a mailed copy, he said.)
The letter said Fredrics was removed because his comments were “false and argumentative.” The page is a “personal, political social media page used by Michael Ghassali in furtherance of his political candidacies, causes and goals and is not maintained by the Borough,” the attorney said.
On the free speech decision by the Supreme Court, the attorney argued Ghassali was in the right.
“The Court’s rationale clearly allows a public official to control his or her town personal social media page without having to tolerate false or argumentative comments by third parties,” he wrote. “Your client is free to create his own social media page and to post to it whatever opinions he may have, but my understanding is that Mayor Ghassali has no intention to allow them on his page.”
Fredrics said the tone of his comments was no different from other commenters, and none of his comments were “false.”
“Given that Mayor Ghassali maintains a separate personal page under the name, `Mike Ghassali,’ the existence of a `Mayor Mike Ghassali’ page further undermines any claims that he is operating the `Mayor Mike Ghassali’ page in anything other than an official capacity,” he said.
Fredrics said he hopes the mayor and the borough will change their minds.
“I continue to believe that he has breached my fundamental First Amendment right to free speech,” he said. “I reserve my right to take legal action.”
Perhaps a judge, or nine justices, will decide.
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Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com. Follow her on X at @KPMueller.
This article was originally published by a www.nj.com . Read the Original article here. .