CHICAGO, Il.— The 7th U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled against the University of Wisconsin – Madison for violating the 1st amendment rights of Madeline Krasno by blocking her comments on the school’s social media pages.
Krasno graduated from the UW-Madison in 2013 and was an undergraduate animal caretaker who worked in the university’s primate research lab.
In 2020, Krasno began criticizing UW-Madison of their animal testing practices, giving stories of her own experience in the lab where she saw monkeys lonely in cages their whole lives and expressed stress when being experimented on.
Comments sent by Krasno that criticized UW-Madison’s practices were hidden until the university ultimately restricted her from the school’s social media accounts in September of 2020.
It wasn’t until February of 2021 did Krasno file a lawsuit against UW-Madison claiming that the university was limiting her 1st amendment rights.
On the circuit court level, the federal judged dismissed the case and ruled in favor for UW-Madison.
But the appeals court ruled in favor of Krasno on Friday, August 1st claiming the university did violate Krasno’s rights.
UW-Madison had argued that comments left by Krasno were not within the lines of topics of discussions on some of the university’s posts.
However, the appeals court pointed out that when the university did post about programs on topic revolving around animals, Krasno’s comments were still targeted and hidden.
With the appeals court ruling in favor of Krasno, UW-Madison has limited options as what to do next.
They university can restrict all commenting on it’s social media platforms, limiting any critical comments or it could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court for a ruling.
At this time, UW-Madison has not yet commented on what it’s next move will be.
