New Jersey bureaucrats censor 'Christian grandma' for asking constituents about taxes: lawsuit

New Jersey Democratic Attorney General Matthew Platkin is allegedly chilling the speech of pro-life pregnancy centers by trying to pry open their donor records, drawing concern from a motley crew of conservative and liberal advocacy groups and the Supreme Court, which hears oral argument in the centers' legal challenge next month.

Now other Garden State officials are getting sued for threatening "Christian grandma" and Navy veteran because the school board member asked community members on her personal Facebook page for their thoughts on a proposed tax increase, according to her lawyers.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression is representing the Alloway Township Board of Education member, Gail Nazarene, against the education commissioner and School Ethics Commission members to block the state's interpretation and enforcement of the School Ethics Act against Nazarene and "thousands of other elected school board members."

Neither the law nor its ethics code "contains any provision or restrictions regarding school board members’ communications with constituents about public school-related issues," yet the commission issued an "advisory opinion" in 2022 defining permissible "private conduct" so narrowly it excludes discussing any issue the school board might consider.

The law is, "in effect, a prior restraint and a gag order that precludes elected officials from communicating with or soliciting views from constituents," portraying all of their communications as an impermissible usurpation of their school boards' voices, the suit says.

“I didn’t join the school board to be told to shut up,” yet New Jersey officials believe they can "punish me simply for asking folks questions about important issues, particularly when it affects their wallets," Nazarene said in FIRE's press release.

The commissioner's office and ethics commission did not respond to Just the News queries.

New Jersey education officials are far from the only class of government officials that seek to control how public employees speak to the public. Public universities often warn faculty never to speak on public issues without explicitly stating they aren't representing their institutions or to get preapproval, the subject of a new lawsuit against West Point.

The advisory opinion went further, however, telling school board members that "any attempt to disclaim your speech (as being in your personal or private capacity) would likely be futile" and still prohibited by the law, FIRE's lawsuit says.

Punished for distinguishing book 'banning' from 'age appropriate' decisions

Nazarene campaigned for the school board through Facebook and expected to communicate with constituents there as well, but she has stopped following warnings by the education commissioner and ethics commission, "reinforced by directives" from the School Board Association, "admonishments" from her school board chair and a complaint to the ethics commission from another board member, the suit says.

The commissioner and ethics commission have punished school board members who "communicate with the public about matters of public concern" for several years, such as in 2021 when the commission recommended censure of a board member who endorsed and opposed school board candidates in an op-ed with an explicit disclaimer.

It's not enough that the op-ed said his "opinions are his own" because he made "multiple references to his position on the Board and Board matters generally” and did not expressly disavow speaking in his capacity as a board member or as representative of the board, the commission said. 

The commissioner approved a sanction but reduced it to a reprimand, saying the negative disclaimer of not speaking for the board was necessary, the suit says.

Just this summer, the commission wasn't satisfied with repeated positive and negative disclaimers by another school board member in Facebook posts about "school overcrowding, failed referendums to build a new school, extra spending for an appointed superintendent" and other issues, because they weren't in every post and she used the pronoun "we."

Most recently, the commissioner and ethics commission punished a school board member for distinguishing between "banning" books from the school library and buying "neutral written [sic]" and "age appropriate" books in a Facebook group, because his comments "had the potential to compromise the board," the suit says.

Talking about taxes is like 'shouting fire in a crowded theater'

Nazarene's school board president warned her after she spoke explicitly in her personal capacity at a March 20 township committee meeting about "public information and nothing related to deliberations or discussions of the Alloway school board," encouraging the public to attend an upcoming school board meeting about the budget.

Ten days later she asked the community from her Facebook page, now labeled simply "Gail Nazarene for Alloway," for their opinion about whether "taxes will need to be raised by 30% to keep the school open," ahead of a school board discussion on the issue. 

The president pulled her aside to compare her posts to "shouting fire in a crowded theater" and the chief school administrator asked her to stop communicating with constituents about tax issues, the suit says. 

Nazarene responded over the following several days, adding repeated disclaimers and accusing officials of censoring her.

"Hi I am asking for myself AND ONLY FOR MYSELF – how do you feel about being silenced? Unable to freely speak and ask questions because of volunteering," meaning her elected position, Nazarene wrote April 3 on Facebook.

She elaborated the next day: "As a resident of Alloway, I am wondering what other residents think about a 9-15% school tax increase? ‘The above statements are made in my capacity as a private citizen, and not in my capacity as a board member. These statements are also not representative of the Board or its individual members and solely represent my own personal opinions.’"

"Help I need a lawyer," Nazarene wrote April 7. "My freedom of speech is being ripped away by the NJ school board," denying her the ability to "speak as a citizen … Voting for the people is not allowed because I cannot speak to the people to ask questions!!!"

Fellow board member Sara Cobb soon filed a complaint against her with the ethics commission, claiming that "asking constituents online for their feedback," in the suit's paraphrase, violates four sections of the School Ethics Act. Nazarene responded by citing the First Amendment, and the complaint remains pending.

All these together have coerced Nazarene into halting all "public comment and outreach" even on pressing issues of public concern, such as Alloway Township's possible dissolution of its own school district and school board in a proposal for regionalization and Nazarene's explanation for why she voted against last year's "inflated and excessive" budget.

"Under the state’s interpretation, Nazarene is prevented from even informing Alloway’s residents how she voted on the budget proposal," the suit says.