Pol for the birds AOC: Toss Hikind’s suit over my blocking his tweets
Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez asked a judge Thursday to toss a lawsuit alleging she’s violating former Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind’s constitutional rights by blocking him on Twitter.
Lawyers for the social media-savvy Queens-Bronx congresswoman argued in Brooklyn Federal Court that Hikind “lacks standing to bring the action” and that Ocasio-Cortez hasn’t been “properly served” with the suit.
Ocasio-Cortez’s legal team is asking that the judge dismiss Hikind’s lawsuit with prejudice so that a similar action can’t be brought again.
Hikind filed the suit last month and used a federal appeals ruling against President Trump as legal ammunition.
The Trump ruling found that the president had been violating the First Amendment by blocking critics on Twitter, and Hikind reasoned that Ocasio-Cortez was guilty of the doing the same.
Ocasio-Cortez’s attorneys admitted she had blocked Hikind, but contended it wasn’t because of his opinions. Hikind was blocked after repeatedly slamming OcasioCortez on Twitter because he took issue with her calling the Trump administration’s immigration detention centers “concentration camps.”
In a statement Thursday, the ex-Brooklyn legislator blasted the 29-year-old congresswoman as “a coward.”
“After acknowledging that she blocked me to disable my commenting without citing an offensive comment, it’s clear to me that Ms. OcasioCortez is a coward,” he said. “With millions of followers, why is she still so afraid of what I have to say?”
Corbin Trent, OcasioCortez’s spokesman, declined to comment.