Governmental blocking of my political email

This entry will keep track of where my political email is being blocked and develop alternative avenues of communicating to the voters from whom I am being blocked.

The focus at the moment is blocking by public schools and other governmental entities.  As discussed in the entry An Internet political campaign, there is a question of whether such blocking is a violation of First Amendment rights.  I am trying to obtain legal opinion about that and am asking public school authorities whether they have obtained a legal opinion.  As of this time there is no legal opinion to report.

I have made inquiries to the following public school authorities about whether there will be blocking :  the Vestavia Hills Board of Education, the Mountain Brook Board of Education, the Jefferson County Board of Education, the Shelby County Board of Education, the Chilton County Board of Education, the Hoover Board of Education, the St. Clair County Schools, the Homewood Board of Education, the Alabaster City Schools, and  the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

It should be pointed out that First Amendment rights include both a speaker's right to make speech and a listener's right to hear speech.  If public school authorities block my emails to teachers and that is a violation of the First Amendment, it is a violation of the teachers' rights, as well as my rights.  It would seem to me that it would behoove a public school authority to obtain a legal opinion that its blocking of my emails will not be a violation of the First Amendment.

Linked In appears to be a good alternative way to communicate to voters who happen to be teachers and other employees of public schools who are blocking my emails..  I have initiated using Linked In.

Vestavia Hills Board of Education 

Thus far, the only response that I have heard that I have taken as a final answer is from Dr. Jamie Blair of the Vestavia Hills Board of Education, who said in his response to me  "you and any person using our email for political purposes will be blocked."

Jefferson County Board of Education

On March 11, 2014, I received a letter in the U.S. mail  from Dr. Stephen Nowlin, Superintendent of the Jefferson County Board of Education.  Dr. Nowlin's letter cited Perry Education Association v. Perry Local Educators Association, 460 U.S. 37 (1983), in defense of a position of the Jefferson County Board of Education that it will block me if I try to use Board of Education email addresses to communicate to teachers.

I replied by email as follows:

Dear Ms. Littles,
Please advise Dr. Nowlin that I have received his letter, and I thank him very much for directing my attention to relevant legal authority.
As previously noted, Jefcoed has changed to not showing email addresses on the websites and instead has online contact forms. I have no idea whether employees continue to have Jefcoed email addresses, and, if so, what use is made by employees of those email addresses, such as for chatting with friends and taking care of personal matters, and/or what Jefcoed does to restrict any such use.
In short, I am not clear whether all is black and white here.
It is possible that I will, notwithstanding Dr. Nowlin's letter, use online contact forms to try to send messages to teachers.
In reaction to that, Jefcoed may block my computer IP address (or some such) to try to prevent me from communicating to teachers. That's all fine, and I will manage in my campaign.
Again, thanks to Dr. Nowlin for his letter to me.
Sincerely.

I sent a follow up email as follows:

Dear Ms. Littles,
I have some follow up regarding the email I sent to you yesterday in response to Dr. Nowlin's letter.
In my campaign efforts to communicate to teachers in schools throughout the 6th Congressional district, it is hard to keep immediately in mind everything I have done. My email yesterday referred to the Jefcoed websites not showing email addresses and having only contact forms. As our email correspondence reflected, I sent emails to Gardendale High School using email addresses, which I managed to do because I knew the form of Jefcoed email addresses and was able to create email addresses for the Gardendale teachers using their names. I did the same thing with Shades Valley High last Friday.
Thus, I do know that teachers have Jefcoed email addresses to which emails can be sent. I remain ignorant of how much non-school use is made of such email addresses and to what extent Jefcoed monitors and enforces restrictions on non-school use.
I think it is worth pointing out that the U.S. Supreme Court case Perry Education Association v. Perry Local Educators Association, 460 U.S. 37 (1983), which Dr. Nowlin's letter cites, is from 1983. In 1983, the Internet was in its infancy, and I doubt the technology involved in the case was connected with the outside world through the Internet.
It sounds from Dr. Nowlin's letter that no legal opinion has been obtained currently and that language in the 1983 case is being loosely relied on by the Board of Education.
I have been communicating with other Boards of Education and will inform them about Dr. Nowlin's letter. I will also renew my effort to get the views of one or more constitutional law professors in Alabama about this matter.
Communicating to teachers and other employees at schools throughout the 6th Congressional district is an important part of my election campaign. I need to continue such communicating. If Boards of Education act to block my email address, so be it.
I favor strenuous efforts to battle against cyber criminals, hackers, scammers, and abusive spammers. I do not consider myself being abusive. The Board of Education should reflect on whether it wants to allow the bad actors to justify the Board in blocking my non-abusive use.
Sincerely,

Updates
Other Boards of Education, etc.

I have notified the following about Dr. Nowlin's letter:  Shelby County Board of Education, Bibb County Board of Education, Blount County Board of Education, Chilton County Board of  Education, Homewood Board of Education, Mountain Brook Board of Education, Vestavia Hills Board of Education. Hoover Board of Education, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

Contact with University of Alabama constitutional law professor

I have heard back from the University of Alabama constitutional law professor with whom I initiated contact. I don't have any opinion or view of his to report, and I will be contacting other constitutional law professors in Alabama as well.  I am not optimistic about any of the professors weighing in with a view, but I want this real, live situation in the 6th Congressional district to be called to the attention of the professors, and for the Boards of Education to know that an action on their part to block my emails may come under close scrutiny, As previously indicated, if I was one of the Boards, I would get a favorable, current, legal opinion before I acted to block my email address.

Blount County Board of Education

The Blount County Board of Education has written me and said

our Board policy states "The Board's and/or school's mail system may not be used to distribute political material. (Section 17-1-17 of the Alabama Code, Attorney General's opinion 94-00255). " Our Board does not provide a list of employee names or e-mail addresses to any candidate and we do not give candidates permission to use our e-mail system.

The current Code of Alabama provision is Section 17-17-5(a), which provides

 No person in the employment of the State of Alabama, a county, a city, a local school board, or any other governmental agency, whether classified or unclassified, shall use any state, county, city, local school board, or other governmental agency funds, property, or time, for any political activities.

Alabama Attorney General opinion 94-00255 can be found here.   The opinion, in three separate parts, concludes that a school board may prohibit school employees from (i) wearing partisan political buttons while on school property, (ii) distributing partisan political material through the inter-office and inter-facility mail service, and (iii) displaying partisan political material on school bulletin boards or walls.   The opinion suggests that a school board may even limit the discussion of political candidates by employees during working hours.

I don't know whether Blount County Board of Education prohibits employees from discussing political candidates during working hours or prohibits employees from reading (in print or via the Internet, whether through a school computer or a personal smartphone) partisan political materials during working hours.

The statutory prohibition is against employees using property or time for political purposes.

It is not clear to me that the statutory prohibition requires a school board to block my email address if I send political emails to teachers.  It is not clear to me that it would be constitutional for a school board to block my email address.

Under the circumstances, my decision at the moment is to continue sending emails to teachers and put the onus on school boards to take the step of putting in place on its email system a block of my email address (if their decision is to block me).

Letter from Homewood Board of Education counsel

From: Sweeney, Donald B. <dsweeney@babc.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 11:07 AM
Subject: RE: To various Boards of Education and UAB regarding blocking my political email
To: "Wilson, Merrick" <mwilson@homewood.k12.al.us>, "Cleveland, Bill" <bcleveland@homewood.k12.al.us>
Cc: "rdshattuck@gmail.com" <rdshattuck@gmail.com>

Dear Mr. Wilson,

As attorney for the Homewood Board of Education, I believe that you have every right to determine who has access to your email system.

Accordingly, I recommend as board attorney that you block all emails from Mr. Shattuck. If he has case law that clearly and convincingly demonstrates that he has a Constitution right to access the Board’s email system for purposes unrelated to the educational program of the school system I would be glad to review what he submits.

In the meantime I would suggest you block all of his emails and put an end to this time consuming distraction.

I am sending this message to Mr. Shattuck for two reasons. First to share my opinion to you and the Homewood Board of Education. And second to advise Mr. Shattuck that I have no interest in receiving or replying to any emails from him. If he wants to submit a position statement setting his legal contention he may do so by mail to my address.

Yours truly,

Donald Sweeney

P.S. Please forward this opinion to all people listed on Mr. Shttuck’s email to you. Several of the parties listed are clients of mine.

Email to University of Alabama constitutional law professors

[I have emailed to the University of Alabama constitutional law professors I previously contacted the below message]

Dear Professors,

Following up on the email that I sent yesterday, please be advised that counsel to the Homewood Board of Education has written a letter to the Board, which says, in part, as follows:

As attorney for the Homewood Board of Education, I believe you have every right to determine who has access to your email system.
Accordingly, I recommend as board attorney that you block all emails from Mr. Shattuck. If he has case law that clearly and convincingly demonstrates that he has a Constitution[al] right to access the Board’s email system for purposes unrelated to the educational program of the school system I would be glad to review what he submits.
In the meantime I would suggest you block all of his emails and put an end to this time consuming distraction.
. . .
P.S. Please forward this opinion to all people listed on Mr. Shttuck’s email to you. Several of the parties listed are clients of mine.

The full text of said counsel's letter is set forth in my blog entry Governmental blocking of my political email.

Cumberland constitutional law professors

[I sent the following email message to three constitutional law professors at the Cumberland School of Law.]

Dear Professors,

I am a candidate for Congress in the Alabama 6th Congressional district. I am trying to send emails to teachers at public schools using their school email addresses. This is causing a brouhaha. See Governmental blocking of my political email.

Counsel for the Homewood Board of Education is recommending to the Board (and to other Boards that he is counsel to) that they block my email address. (His letter is reproduced at the above link.)

The Board counsel says, if I have case law that clearly and convincingly demonstrates that I have a Constitutional right to access the Board’s email system for purposes unrelated to the educational program of the school system, he would be glad to review what I submit.

I would say that, if First Amendment rights are being violated by a Board blocking my email address, it is not just my right to speak but also teachers' rights to hear my speech.

I am not expecting any of you to weigh in on this. I am only presenting this to you as a means for pushing back against Board counsel.

Update 3/29/14 Homewood Board of Education is blocking me

I sent the below email and got the error message indicated below the email.  I will be endeavoring to find alternative ways to communicate to teachers and staff at Homewood schools.

From: Rob Shattuck <rdshattuck@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Mar 29, 2014 at 6:45 AM
Subject: Mon. night's televised 6th Cong'l debate at Samford
To: zbarnes@homewood.k12.al.us, ecunningham@homewood.k12.al.us
Monday, at 6 pm, there will be a debate of the Alabama 6th Congressional district candidates at the Samford University Wright Center. The debate will be broadcast live on Channel 13.
I am one of the Congressional candidates and will participate in the debate.
I hope you will attend the debate or watch it on TV.
If you would like to get a preview of the debate and learn about my candidacy, please go to this campaign blog entry: March 31st 6th Con'l district debate on Channel 13.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Rob Shattuck
Candidate, AL 6th Congressional district

Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the server for the recipient domain homewood.k12.al.us by mx.cloudopscenter.net.[66.199.31.140].

The error that the other server returned was:
550 Your message to this server is not allowed based on Domain Entry: rdshattuck@gmail.com


Update 4/16/14  Shelby County Board of Educations is blocking me

I am endeavoring to send the below email message to social studies teachers at high schools in the 6th Congressional district.  The Shelby County Board of Education is blocking me from sending emails to its high schools.

Re: To: ____ HS Social Studies teachers re: Monday's candidate forum at Hoover HS
On Monday at noon, there is going to be, at the Hoover High School, a candidate forum for the 6th Congressional district candidates, sponsored by WERC.
While your students may not be able to attend the forum, WERC will record it and broadcast it on 105-5 at 7 pm Monday evening.
I am one of the candidates, and I am taking the opportunity to give you some "food for thought" in advance.
I have copied and pasted, onto my campaign website, the issue positions of the other candidates set forth on their respective websites. You can find these copied and pasted positions of the other candidates at these links: (i) Rep. DeMarco's issue positions, (ii) Will Brooke candidacy, and (iii) Positions of Beason, Mathis, Palmer and Vignuelle.
I am trying to make sense of the campaigns of the other candidates, and I have started a campaign blog entry entitled MAKING SENSE OF THIS. It is in draft form at the moment, but I think you will find it thought provoking concerning what this 6th district election campaign is about.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Rob Shattuck
Be An Alabama Rootstriker