(Monroe, NC)—Lisa Metzger is a committed member of her community, regularly attending and speaking during the City of Monroe’s City Council Meetings. The public comment period is an important portion of these meetings where anyone is allowed to share or ask questions on any topic that may be of concern to them or other members of the community.
In 2025, the City adopted and enforced new “Rules Governing Public Comment Period and Rules of Decorum During City Council Regular Meetings” that require speakers to verbally state their full personal primary residence address before offering remarks. Up until recently, meetings were livestreamed and posted online, forcing citizens to broadcast their home addresses to the public as the price of speaking on matters of public concern.
Ms. Metzger and other citizens have since faced threats and harassment after participating in public comment. Other speakers have forfeited their time rather than expose their families by announcing their full home addresses on camera.
In addition, the City’s “decorum” rules prohibit “yelling,” “insulting,” “rude,” or “abusive” comments, “public ridicule,” and “personal attacks,” empowering officials to cut off speakers, force forfeiture of speaking time, and remove citizens from meetings at the presiding officer’s discretion. City officials have used these vague and over broad standards to interrupt, sanction, and eject speakers who directly address council members or raise uncomfortable topics.
On November 5, the Liberty Justice Center filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Monroe, North Carolina, and Mayor Robert Burns (in his official capacity) challenging the new City rules. The lawsuit alleges that compelling speakers to disclose their full personal home addresses and restricting critical speech through vague and viewpoint-discriminatory rules, violates the First Amendment rights to free speech and to petition, as incorporated through the Fourteenth Amendment. The suit further alleges that Monroe’s rules are unconstitutionally over-broad and vague, inviting arbitrary enforcement.
As a municipal government, the City of Monroe is constitutionally obligated to protect citizens’ freedoms of speech and petition. By conditioning speech on compelled disclosure of a home address and censoring criticism of public officials, Monroe violates those core constitutional protections.
“City officials cannot hide from criticism. They must allow citizens to speak their mind. We hope this lawsuit brings the First Amendment back to Monroe City Council meetings,” said Ryan Morrison, senior counsel at the Liberty Justice Center.
The Liberty Justice Center’s lawsuit asks the court to halt enforcement of the compelled address requirement and the City’s speech restrictions so that citizens can speak freely and petition their elected officials without fear of retaliation or removal.
Metzger v. City of Monroe, North Carolina was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, Charlotte Division, on November 5, 2025 and legal filings are available here.