Lawsuit Against Fletcher to go Forward

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Lexington Herald-leader
Free-speech suit against Fletcher to go forward
ASSOCIATED PRESS

A federal judge refused to dismiss a free-speech lawsuit filed by a political commentator against Gov. Ernie Fletcher.

U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell on Friday referred the case filed by Internet blogger Mark Nickolas to a federal magistrate to manage the exchange of evidence in the case and to conduct a settlement conference "as he deems appropriate."

The Fletcher administration blocked state computers from various Internet categories.

Nickolas, represented by the Washington-based advocacy group Public Citizen, claims in the lawsuit that the Fletcher administration singled him out, blocking access to his Web site, http://www.bluegrassreport.org/.

The state produced a list of Web sites that were blocked, including religious sites, blogs operated by newspapers and one University of Kentucky Web site.