The latest volley in a back-and-forth battle between an elected official and a governing body is playing out in court.
No, it doesn’t involve former President Donald Trump and the Justice Department. It isn’t about Allegheny County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam and the Jail Oversight Board. It isn’t about any of the oh so many times and ways state lawmakers or agencies have gotten into legal scuffles.
This time, it is Norwin School Board member Alex Detschelt of North Huntingdon suing the district and Superintendent Jeffrey Taylor in federal court. Detschelt says Taylor infringed his rights to free speech.
Free speech is important. It’s our first and most cherished liberty. But is it what happened here?
Taylor criticized a Facebook post the board member made on Oct. 25. Detschelt used his freedom of speech to use a slur against the mentally disabled in a post about John Fetterman, then the lieutenant governor and now U.S. senator. On Oct. 28, Taylor addressed the post in a statement and news release.
Detschelt says that is where Taylor went wrong, causing him “reputational harm.”
A court will decide whether Detschelt is right, but it invites a larger question.
If Detschelt’s reputation was harmed by Taylor’s words, what did Detschelt’s do to Fetterman? What did they do to his own constituents who have mental disabilities? Does accusing Taylor of retaliation, in turn, damage the superintendent’s reputation?
Detschelt is within his rights to take offense and sue, but his own actions on the board show that having attention called to the language he used made a difference to him. In January, he took issue with the book “Al Capone Does My Shirts,” in part, because it used the same slur he posted online.
It is important when calling attention to our rights that the conversation does not just stop with our own freedoms and our own hurts. We need to acknowledge the responsibilities, the consequences and the lessons that can be learned.
Detschelt said he filed the suit to “send a message to school officials that pursuant to the First Amendment, they cannot retaliate against an elected official who … expresses his or her own political views that may be contrary to those who wish to retaliate.”
The lawsuit, while permissible, seems to do the same.
