"Is it a violation of a person's civil rights if an elected government official intentionally tries to deprive them of their right of free speech?"
"But, above all else, the First Amendment means that government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content." ~ Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the Court's 96th justice and its first African-American justice.
"Vigilance is necessary to ensure that public employers do not use authority over employees to silence discourse, not because it hampers public functions but simply because superiors disagree with the content of employees’ speech.” ~ Justice Marshall
on July 16, 2015, 6:50 pm, in reply to "