State to pay liberal group $200,000 to settle Twitter suit against Republicans
MADISON – Wisconsin taxpayers will hand over $200,000 to a liberal organization’s lawyers because Republican lawmakers blocked the group on Twitter.
State officials agreed Thursday to make the payment for One Wisconsin Now’s legal bills after a federal judge determined in January that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Rep. John Nygren had infringed on the group’s First Amendment rights.
Vos, of Rochester, and Nygren, of Marinette, did not immediately say whether they would pay back taxpayers for the legal bills.
One Wisconsin Now routinely criticizes Republicans on Twitter and other platforms. In 2017 it sued Vos, Nygren and then-Rep. Jesse Kremer of Kewaskum for blocking it.
U.S. District Judge William Conley, who was put on the bench in 2010 by President Barack Obama, in January concluded the three lawmakers had acted unconstitutionally by blocking the group on Twitter “because of its prior speech or identity.”
In response, Vos and Nygren unblocked the group. Kremer did not seek re-election last year and shut down his official Twitter account, @RepJesseKremer. He has been dropped from the lawsuit.
Conley found that the lawmakers operated their Twitter accounts as public officials and as a result had created an interactive forum available to the general public. Under the Constitution, they weren’t allowed to prevent One Wisconsin Now from having its say, he ruled.
Vos and Nygren are two of the top Republicans in the Legislature. Vos leads the Assembly and Nygren is cochairman of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee.
The pair were represented in the lawsuit by Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul. One Wisconsin Now was represented by Pines Bach, a Madison law firm that has often challenged Republicans in court.
Last year, then-Rep. Dale Kooyenga of Brookfield paid the state $30,000 to settle a lawsuit a man brought against the state because Kooyenga had removed his protest sign from an easel in the Capitol.
Initially, Kooyenga was going to have taxpayers cover the cost, but he decided to pay it himself after facing criticism. Kooyenga was elected to the state Senate in November.
Vos and Nygren didn’t say Thursday whether they would take Kooyenga’s lead and pay for the settlement in their own case.
Scot Ross, who served as executive director of One Wisconsin when the lawsuit was filed, on Thursday wrote on Twitter that when “Wisconsin Republicans don’t want to follow the law, taxpayers get stuck picking up the check.”
Wisconsin’s Twitter lawsuit is similar to one brought against President Donald Trump by Twitter users he blocked. A federal judge in New York ruled in the users’ favor last year.
Trump unblocked them but has appealed the ruling.