The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two women who said all of their comments on the governor's Facebook page were deleted and they were blocked after asking him about his comments that he spreads false stories through the media.
The ACLU says LePage uses his Facebook page, titled "Paul LePage, Maine's Governor", to perform government business, so blocking people who disagree with him "constitutes viewpoint discrimination and government censorship in violation of the USA and Maine constitutions".
"Social media has quickly become a crucial tool for constituents to express their opinions to public officials", said Meagan Sway, attorney for the ACLU, in a prepared statement.
The civil liberties organization recently filed similar lawsuits against Republican Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin and Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.
The ACLU says the page, which is verified by Facebook, is used as a forum for public announcements and press releases, and once had a since-removed link to Maine's official website.
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The governor has called the Facebook account a political page, and the page's "about" section describes itself as LePage's "official page- but not managed by gov't officials".
But there are close ties between the purportedly unofficial page and LePage's official communications. However, the ACLU argued it was the de-facto official account of the governor.
Calvert said public officials like LePage may have a responsibility to allow the posting of views that are contrary to their own if they are using social media to conduct official business or issue official statements.
In Davison v. Loudoun County, a Virginia resident named Brian Davison sued the county's board of supervisors for deleting a negative comment he made on the chairwoman's Facebook page. The lawsuit seeks attorney fees, a court declaration that the governor's use of his page violates the women's freedom of speech and a court order preventing LePage from continuing his censorship. But the page's overseers say that doesn't make it an official arm of LePage's government, note that it's not run by government employees, and say it's their right to moderate a space that's supposed to be in support of the governor. "Maine will be a stronger state if those in power listen to people from across the political spectrum".
After that letter, LePage issued a post dismissing the threat of a lawsuit as a liberal "attack" against him, saying it's not a government page.
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