Stemming from a lawsuit filed by a resident who said selectmen had silenced her unlawfully, the decision pushed back against attempts to mandate good manners — assuring freedom of speech. Residents’ right to be rude upheld by Massachusetts Supreme Court:
Louise Barron at her home in Southborough, Mass., on March 15, 2023.
Those concerns were not enough to sway the state’s high court. It struck down as unconstitutional Southborough’s “civility code” for public comment at meetings, which required “respectful and courteous” discourse “free of rude, personal or slanderous remarks.” It reversed an earlier Worcester County Superior Court ruling for the town, which lies between Boston and Worcester and has about 10,000 residents.
After a board member, Daniel L. Kolenda, cut her off and accused her of “slander” against “town officials who are doing their very best,” Barron told him, “Look, you need to stop being a Hitler. You’re a Hitler. I can say what I want.” The court found that her reference to Hitler was “certainly rude and insulting,” but was protected speech nonetheless. The town’s insistence on civility “appears to cross the line into viewpoint discrimination: allowing lavish praise but disallowing harsh criticism of government officials,” the ruling said.
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