PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge has determined that the Philadelphia Police Department acted within its rights when it fired or suspended several officers due to racist and violent posts on social media, asserting that these actions did not infringe upon the officers’ First Amendment rights.

U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone handed down her verdict on Monday, just before the case was slated for trial. She ruled that the posts made by the officers had the potential to significantly disrupt the operations of both the police department and the city, thereby not qualifying as protected speech under the Constitution.

The officers’ online comments were compiled in a database known as the Plain View Project, which was released in 2019 and documented thousands of offensive or violent posts made by current and former police personnel across various states.

In Philadelphia, around 200 officers faced disciplinary actions, with 15 being terminated from their positions. Although many of those dismissed had their terminations reversed by an arbitrator and were able to return to duty, some chose to retire from the force. Only the dismissal of one officer was upheld following arbitration.

A group of twenty of the disciplined officers initiated a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city, claiming that their First Amendment rights were violated and that they faced retaliation from the police department.

The lawsuit was initially dismissed by a federal judge in February 2022; however, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned this dismissal in June 2023, stating that the case had been dismissed prematurely. Subsequently, the city contended that the trial was unnecessary and requested that Beetlestone make the final determination, which she granted.

In her ruling, Beetlestone meticulously outlined how the comments made by the officers could undermine public confidence in law enforcement, diminish the treatment of community members they were sworn to protect, and potentially render them unreliable as witnesses in judicial proceedings.

Attorneys for the city and the representative for eight of the officers opted not to comment on the ruling, while the counsel for the remaining officers did not provide a response to inquiries.

The Facebook posts in question were all publicly accessible and were discovered by a research team that dedicated two years to investigating the social media accounts of police officers from various states, including Arizona and Florida. Their findings detailed officers disparaging immigrants and Muslims, espousing racist stereotypes, aligning themselves with extremist militia groups, and notably, praising police brutality.