A family in Oxford, Wisconsin is suing the local sheriff’s department after a patrol sergeant threatened to arrest a teenage girl for disorderly conduct due to her Instagram posts about being infected with COVID-19. The girl, Amyiah Cohoon, had gone on a spring break trip to Disney World and Universal Studios in Florida with her schoolmates. After returning home, she developed symptoms consistent with COVID-19. She posted on Instagram about her condition and later went to the hospital for treatment.
The next day, a patrol sergeant showed up at Cohoon’s house, under orders from the sheriff, demanding that Cohoon and her father remove the Instagram posts or face charges for disorderly conduct.
The family complied and deleted the posts. The family later connected with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which sent a letter to the sheriff demanding an apology and the promise neither to cite nor threaten criminal charges against the family for the posts. When the sheriff refused, the Institute filed a lawsuit for violating Cohoon’s First and 14th Amendment rights.
The sheriff’s department is defending their actions, claiming that there were no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county and that Cohoon caused distress and panic among other parents by claiming she had COVID-19 despite a negative test result. The department’s lawyer compared the situation to “screaming fire in a crowded theater,” a concept enshrined in Schenck v. United States, arguing that it is not protected by the First Amendment. However, the Supreme Court has since weakened the decision in Schenck v. United States and expanded free speech protections.
