LAWSUIT FILED OVER BOEBERT’S TWITTER FEED
Former state Rep. Brianna Buentello sued U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in federal court Sunday, alleging Colorado’s controversial new congresswoman violated Buentello’s free speech rights by blocking her on Twitter following the storming of the U.S. Capitol.
The lawsuit, which attorney David Lane said he filed in U.S. District Court in Denver, alleges Boebert, R-Rifle, blocked Buentello, a constituent of Boebert’s who served in the state legislature as a Democrat from Pueblo, after Buentello criticized the congresswoman’s actions as seditious.
This prevented Buentello, who was defeated by Republican challenger Stephanie Luck in November, “from viewing her Twitter account, replying to her Tweets or otherwise engaging with those who interact within the replies to her tweets,” according to the lawsuit.
People who are blocked by users on Twitter still can view that person’s tweets — if the account is not made private — by logging out of the social media service. Neither Boebert’s personal Twitter account, @laurenboebert, nor her official one, @RepBoebert, are private.
“We are seeking a preliminary injunction mandating that Boebert stop violating the Constitution she swore an oath to ‘preserve, protect and defend’ little more than two weeks ago,” Lane wrote in a news release. “Recently Donald Trump lost an almost identical case filed in New York when he was doing the same thing. Boebert has not learned that lesson.”
The 2nd U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled in 2019 that Trump violated the First Amendment whenever he blocked a critic to silence a viewpoint.
In the lawsuit, Lane argues that Boebert’s personal Twitter account @laurenboebert “has become an important channel for news about her office and the United States government. Those who are blocked from the account are impeded in their ability to learn information that is shared only through that account.”
Boebert blocked Buentello, according to the lawsuit, after the former lawmaker used Twitter to label the congresswoman’s actions on the day of the Capitol riot as seditious, and demand she be recalled. (Members of Congress can’t be recalled.)