On March 12, the Liberty Justice Center initiated legal proceedings to defend the First Amendment rights of a Kentucky whistleblower. The lawsuit claims that Joel Peyton's online speech was censored after he exposed unethical conduct by county government officials.
In 2023, Joel Peyton, a resident of Simpson County, discovered that the local Industrial Authority intended to purchase farmland near his home for a warehouse project. Peyton and his neighbors opposed this plan and began filing open records requests. This led them to uncover personal credit card charges made by the Industrial Authority’s director, which eventually resulted in the director’s resignation and the abandonment of the land purchase.
Peyton also found that Mason Barnes, Simpson County Judge Executive and member of the Industrial Authority, had a conflict of interest related to another deal negotiated by the Authority. Barnes’ construction company was contracted to build on a parcel sold by the Industrial Authority before its rezoning was finalized. Barnes did not disclose his personal conflict nor recuse himself from voting on the zoning change.
In June 2024, Peyton filed an ethics complaint against Barnes. In January 2025, it was confirmed that Barnes violated the Simpson County Code of Ethics. Instead of addressing these issues, Barnes retaliated by blocking Peyton from his official social media page and publicly naming him in an attacking post.
The Supreme Court has ruled that government officials' social media pages are public forums under the First Amendment. Blocking constituents or deleting their comments constitutes a violation of free speech rights and may lead to legal liability.
The Liberty Justice Center's lawsuit challenges these alleged violations against Mr. Peyton following his exposure of corruption within local government. The suit argues that Barnes engaged in illegal viewpoint discrimination under the First Amendment by attempting to suppress information about his ethics violations and retaliating against Mr. Peyton.
The lawsuit seeks a permanent order preventing Barnes from infringing upon constituents’ First Amendment rights online again.
“Mason Barnes tried to discredit me and suppress my speech to cover up his own wrongdoing," said plaintiff Joel Peyton. "But censoring me doesn’t erase anything he did—it just adds another ethics violation to his record.”
“Judge executives, magistrates, and other public officials cannot censor their constituents," stated Steven Megerle, attorney and local counsel for Liberty Justice Center. "I am excited to again serve as local counsel with Liberty Justice Center to ensure every citizen can compliment, criticize, and follow elected officials on social media as protected by the First Amendment.”
“The Supreme Court has made clear: public officials cannot block critics on their official social media pages," noted Dean McGee, Senior Attorney for Educational Freedom at Liberty Justice Center.
Liberty Justice Center continues its advocacy for First Amendment rights across various states including North Carolina, Kentucky, Illinois, and California.
The case Peyton v. Barnes was filed in U.S. District Court for Western District of Kentucky on March 12 with Steven J. Megerle serving as local counsel.