Beech Grove settles free-speech lawsuit over Facebook use

An Indianapolis suburb has settled a lawsuit accusing it of violating free speech rights when it removed two women's critical comments on its Facebook page.

Court documents show the plaintiffs will receive nearly $7,500 each in costs and attorneys' fees. The women will be allowed to post on Beech Grove city-run Facebook pages again. The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana has filed the lawsuits. The pages were taken down in July.

The city will no longer be allowed to block users or remove their comments because of viewpoint. Instead the city will issue three warnings if officials think policies have been violated. The user can be blocked after three warnings.

City attorney Craig Wiley said Beech Grove is happy to resolve the matter and put the Facebook pages back online.