A federal court revived a lawsuit by Philly cops who said they were improperly disciplined for their Facebook posts

A federal appeals court has ruled that a civil rights lawsuit filed by 12 Philadelphia police officers who were disciplined for making racist or violent Facebook posts should be allowed to move forward, reversing a decision by a federal judge last year to dismiss the case.

In an opinion filed Thursday, the three-judge panel said that although it generally agreed the officers who sued had used social media “to openly denigrate various minority groups and glorify the use of violence,” it believed that their suit — which accused the city of violating their First Amendment rights — had been tossed prematurely. The panel said the case should be allowed to proceed in order to develop a record on matters including when certain posts were made and by whom, and which specific posts resulted in disciplinary action by the Police Department.

The suit stemmed from a scandal that erupted in 2019, when a website dubbed the Plain View Project published a database of offensive social media posts made by police officers in several cities, including Philadelphia. Hundreds of officers were implicated, and the department responded by firing 15 officers and disciplining dozens more — the largest act of mass police discipline in recent city history.

Some of those officers who had been fired or otherwise reprimanded filed suit a year later, and the group of plaintiffs in this suit ultimately grew to include 12 people: Christian Fenico, Thomas Young, Thomas Gack, Edward McCammitt, Tanya Grandizio, Anthony Anzideo, Anthony Acquaviva, William Bowdren, Joseph Przepiorka, Kristine Amato, Raphael McGough, and Francis Sheridan. They said the posts for which they were disciplined were made on their personal accounts, did not reflect their work on the force, and that the city’s punishment decisions were arbitrary, inconsistent, and in violation of their free speech rights.

U.S. District Judge Petrese B. Tucker disagreed, and ruled against them last year. She said the posts had clearly violated the Police Department’s social media policy and eroded public trust in law enforcement, writing that the officers had “played racist bingo, mocking as many ethnic or religious groups as possible.”

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not disagree on that point, writing: “Posts like the Officers’ have the capacity to confirm the community’s worst fears about bias in policing, and we recognize that the effectiveness of public safety efforts in Philadelphia may well be at stake.”

But the court said the case should be more fully developed in order to assess aspects including the potential impact the posts had on the officers or the department before a decision is made on whether the suit should be tossed.

“While the Officers undoubtedly face a steep uphill battle in ultimately proving their case,” the court wrote, “the allegations in their Amended Complaint entitle them to develop it in discovery.”