A right-wing activist who goes by the moniker “Corn Pop” won a federal court ruling that could lead cities, towns and school boards to overturn policies banning vulgar or abusive speech at meetings.
The provocateur, Nicholas Blanchard of Augusta, won the first round of his lawsuit against his local school board after U.S. District Court Judge Stacey Neumann, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, required the city to suspend rules that she called unconstitutional. The lawsuit will continue on the merits of Blanchard’s case. Blanchard has vowed to be at the next board meeting.
Her ruling only directly addresses Augusta, but it may reverberate across Maine. Both municipalities and school boards have sought to tamp down on rancorous discussions using a standard public comment policy crafted by the Maine School Management Association.
The language used in these policies can vary from district to district. Augusta and some other districts use a version included provisions that bar public commenters from discussing gossip and personal matters or using abusive or vulgar language.
Under this policy, Blanchard’s public comments were interrupted by Martha Witham, the chair of the Augusta School Board, repeatedly over the course of 2025. The Washington D.C. based Institute for Free Speech sued the board on Blanchard’s behalf in January, citing first amendment concerns.
In a ruling Monday, Neumann found that the provisions surrounding gossip, abuse, vulgarity and personal matters were unconstitutionally broad and could lead to viewpoint discrimination.
Blanchard repeatedly attended board meetings in 2025 and spoke in protest of the school’s policies allowing transgender students to participate in sports and use private spaces aligned with their gender identities. At times, he was interrupted for what the board chair considered disruptive and for criticizing school board members.
In his first public comment in January 2025, he was shut down after referring to some men in the room as “soft beta males,” which caused Witham to interject that “disparaging remarks are not allowed.” Blanchard became a regular face at meetings thereafter, repeatedly sparring over the policy with Witham, whom he regularly derides as “Miss Muffy.”
Their interactions culminated in a June confrontation when Blanchard shouted at Witham and refused to yield the floor after she cut him off. Reached by phone Tuesday, Blanchard celebrated the victory and said he looked forward to the next board meeting.
“This is not just a win for me, but a win for every parent that is going to school boards across the state of Maine that are getting silenced for criticizing school board members,” he said. “If it’s a certain individual, like a music teacher that has a pride flag in their class, we are now allowed to go there and name that music teacher by name.”
It’s a win for right-wing media personalities in Maine, who have gained fame by creating scenes at school board meetings across the state. In Lincoln, influencer Tim Bodnar, known as Truth Slinger, was warned against critiquing specific staff members at a board meeting, though that district’s public comment policy is worded differently than Augusta’s.
Blanchard is one of the most notable activists on this front. He is running for an at-large seat on the school board this year. A lawyer was charged with assaulting him at a school board meeting in North Berwick earlier this year.
The Maine School Management Association, which had created the sample policy Augusta’s was based on, encouraged school boards to use the association’s latest language.
“We are aware of the recent opinion and are reviewing it to determine how it might potentially impact a board’s public comment period and our own sample policy,” Executive Director Eric Waddell said in a statement.
A policy almost identical to Augusta’s exists in the Jay-based RSU 73, where a board chair last summer warned a public commenter against directing criticism toward an individual conservative on the board.
Witham and Augusta Superintendent Michael Tracy could not immediately be reached for comment on the ruling. Through its lawyers, the city predicted escalating disruptions and less decorum if the policy is thrown out.
Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between the Bangor Daily News and The Maine Monitor, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.