A dispute over First Amendment rights has resulted in the North Carolina National Guard settling a lawsuit with a veteran who claimed he was pressured to retire over his criticism of leadership. Timothy Stanhope, a retired guardsman, received pushback when he made several posts online to the Guard’s official Facebook page criticizing leadership.
Background
Stanhope first started his military career by joining the Army in 1996. He left the service in 2002, but returned to the military in 2010 when he joined the National Guard. This was the same year the National Guard created its official Facebook page. While he was in the Guard, Stanhope started making posts on its Facebook page and his own, calling out leadership and what he believed to be “mismanagement.”
The Guard made it clear to Stanhope after his initial post that his criticism was unwelcome, which Stanhope said disappointed him. However, that didn’t stop Stanhope from continuing to post his thoughts, both on the Guard’s official Facebook page and his own. In 2021, he criticized the mobilization to Washington, D.C., following the events of the January 6 protests, arguing it was “ill-conceived,” “hastily planned,” and gave guardsmen little time to prepare.
Settlement
Stanhope sued the Guard, arguing his First Amendment right to free speech had been violated, since he was speaking about issues that concerned the public on a public platform. The Guard settled, granting Stanhope his access and his posts back, according to a July press release. The Guard did agree not to ban users any longer or hide posts based on the opinions and views expressed, even changing its user agreement from its previous “sole discretion” policy.
The settlement was reached fairly quickly; if the Guard didn’t settle, it would’ve been a more drawn-out process and ultimately a matter for the court to decide instead of having a trial, since it was more a “question of the law.” But the Guard likely recognized what they did was a clear violation of the First Amendment.
Original reporting: Carolina Public Press — read the source article.
