Defendant's Attorney: Carlos M. Quiñones

Description: Las Cruces, New Mexico civil rights lawyers represented the Plaintiffs who sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that Sanders violated their First Amendment rights by threatening frivolous legal action against them in retaliation for their speech.

Dana Sanders was the Superintendent of the Los Lunas, New Mexico Public Schools when Rowena Tachias and Monique Dereta created a Facebook page titled the “Los Lunas School District Parent Discussion Page” and used it to publicly discuss school-related matters online. Sometime after the page’s creation, Sanders learned of the page and felt that it was problematic for the school district. Sanders then undertook a series of actions, including investigating the page, discussing it with numerous people, filing a trademark for the name of the school district, and eventually issuing “cease and desist” letters demanding that the Plaintiffs delete the page. The cease-and-desist letters––which threatened future litigation if the Plaintiffs did not comply––alarmed the Plaintiffs, who felt that their First Amendment rights were being stifled.

Sanders claimed that she was immuned and move for summary judgment.

Outcome: Motion for summary judgment was denied.

Affirmed on appeal.

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