Identity of Speakers
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Madeline Krasno
Unaffiliated
OtherFormer employee of University of Wisconsin, lab researcher
Additional Information
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Incident Nature:
Lawsuit
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Incident Political Orientation:
Not Clear -
Incident Responses:
Litigation
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Incident Status:
In litigation Federal District Court
Held unconstitutional
Appealed
- Was Speech Code incident
Summary
Madeline Krasno, a former employee of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, filed a lawsuit in February 2021 after comments she posted on the University’s social media pages were deleted. The comments concerned the treatment of animals during her time working in the University’s laboratories. Krasno claimed the University violated her First Amendment rights. The University argued that the comments were unrelated to the post and were not deleted because of her position regarding animal testing.
In 2022, U.S. District Judge Crocker dismissed the lawsuit, stating that the University had a legitimate interest in keeping comments on its posts on topic. He noted that “nonpublic” does not mean a page is closed to the public; rather, it is open to the public for certain speakers or topics.
In August 2025, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s decision. The court ruled that UW–Madison’s deletion of comments criticizing animal testing on its social media accounts was unconstitutional. It found that the University’s “off-topic” comment policy was applied in a viewpoint-discriminatory manner, as it systematically suppressed criticism of the University’s research practices. The court determined that the University’s social media comment sections constituted a limited public forum, where moderation must be reasonable and viewpoint-neutral.
Following the appellate ruling, UW–Madison had limited options: it could restrict all commenting on its social media platforms or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. At that time, the University had not announced its next steps.
