Lafayette resident and founder of anti-fracking group East Boulder County United Cliff Willmeng filed a lawsuit Thursday against the city’s outgoing Mayor Christine Berg, alleging she violated his First Amendment rights by blocking and removing critical comments of his on her official Facebook page.

It comes just months after Willmeng, who was joined by Marine Corps reservist Eddie Asher, sued Thornton Mayor Pro-Tem Jan Kulmann for essentially the same thing, alleging that the elected official — who was a proponent of oil and gas interests — violated free speech rights by censoring her government social media page.

“The case is almost identical,” Willmeng said Thursday. “(Berg’s) political party is different (from Kulmann’s), but the principles are all the same.

“She has been the mayor for some time and played a central role in weakening the community response to oil and gas,” he added, suggesting a long-reiterated belief among local activists that the city’s efforts to update its drilling regulations translates as dealings with the industry.

Kullman in October agreed to unblock Willmeng and Asher.

The lawsuit suggests that Berg maintains an official Facebook page as mayor and has repeatedly deleted critical posts.

“Plaintiff Clifton Willmeng is a concerned citizen who has posted comments critical of Defendant Berg on her Facebook page,” attorneys Darold W. Killmer, Andrew McNulty and Tania Valdez of Killmer, Lane & Newman, LLP —who are representing Willmeng in his suit — wrote in Thursday’s filing.

“For that, Defendant Berg removed his comments and blocked him from posting any further messages. Defendant Berg’s practice of stifling Mr. Willmeng’s valid criticism of her is unconstitutional, and this suit seeks to end it.”

According to the suit, the incidents in question reach back to a March 2017 exchange, when Willmeng commented on a number of posts on Berg’s Facebook page in support of the city’s Climate Bill of Rights, a radical bill ushered in by a grassroots effort in 2017 that proponents say essentially bans fracking in Lafayette.

Those and subsequent comments resulted in Berg blocking him from her page and from commenting on further posts, according to the suit, which also alleges she then deleted the comments in question. His attorneys call that “viewpoint-based” retaliation.

Specifically, the suit alleges, Berg retaliated against Willmeng because he posted comments that “were anti-fracking and critical of her position on the issue of fracking. Her retaliatory actions were premised on Mr. Willmeng’s political opposition to her views on fracking and his criticism of her on this issue.”

Willmeng’s suit is not unprecedented.

A federal judge in Manhattan in 2018 ruled unconstitutional President Donald Trump’s proclivity for blocking Twitter users who criticized him and his administration.

Because the president’s Twitter feed is a public forum, Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald wrote in her decision, he violated the First Amendment when he or an aide blocked seven plaintiffs from viewing and responding to his tweets.

“Mr. Willmeng can no longer comment on posts of Defendant Berg’s Facebook page,” the suit states. “He can no longer interact with other users in comment threads. Each new Facebook post by Defendant Berg represents another discussion Mr. Willmeng is foreclosed from participating in.

“The blocking of Mr. Willmeng imposes an unconstitutional restriction on his participation in a designated public forum and his right to petition the government for redress of grievances.”

Attorneys for Willmeng are seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as compensatory damages and punitive damages.

Lafayette City Council last year adopted a new policy for how city leaders should navigate both their personal and public online presence in the wake of a similar free speech lawsuit in Virginia.

That policy included rules regarding the need for officials to separate their private and public accounts, as well as what they can discuss online.

It also dictated that no council member could limit a resident’s ability to view or post comments on their official social media pages, and that city leaders must understand that anything posted or communicated through those official accounts would be subject to Colorado open records law.

Council members also must identify themselves by name and position title and use their city email address when participating in social media websites in their official capacities.

Efforts Thursday to reach Berg were unsuccessful.

Anthony Hahn: 303-473-1422, hahna@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/_anthonyhahn