A former lawmaker has filed a lawsuit against Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, alleging she violated the first amendment by blocking voters on Twitter.
Boebert has blocked at least 12 people on Twitter, with most accounts belonging to voters living in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, according to Colorado Politics.
Former Democratic State Representative Bri Buentello, one of the blocked voters, has sued Boebert in federal court on Sunday for violating her freedom of speech. Buentello said in the case, which was filed by attorney David Lane at the U.S. District Court in Denver, that she was blocked by the @laurenboebert Twitter account after calling the House’s Republican actions provocative.
Boebert prevented Buentello from “viewing her Twitter account, responding to her tweets or otherwise linking to those who respond to her tweets in the responses,” according to the case.
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Buentello is calling for a provisional order that Boebert stop violating the Constitution, “she swore an oath to ‘preserve, protect and defend’ by blocking critics from her district.
Jeff Small, Boebert’s chief of staff, says Newsweek that the congresswoman’s office “will not comment on any pending legislation.”
Buentello claimed in a Sunday interview with Boebert that Boebert “is not above criticism” Colorado Politics. “I know this better than most myself as a former representative. My hope is that one day she will wake up and stop trampling on the First Amendment and stop blocking people,” she said.
In a Sunday statement, Lane said: “Our client, Brianna Buentello, is a former elected state legislator who lives in Boebert’s district and is very concerned that Boebert has no knowledge of, nor is he concerned about, the U.S. Constitution, “besides the idea that it can somehow carry guns wherever it wants. Boebert has blocked Buentello along with many other people who are critical of her authoritarian politics.”
Lane referred to a similar case filed against President Donald Trump in New York. “Boebert did not learn that lesson,” he said.
In 2018, a federal judge ruled that it was unconstitutional for Trump to block people on Twitter over their divergent political views. New York City Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald ruled that the president’s personal social media accounts, and those of other government officials, were public forums, and that blocking critics violated the first amendment.
Days after the verdict, Eugene Gu and Brandon Neely, two plaintiffs who were blocked by Trump, told Newsweek that the president still did not comply with the ruling. He finally exposed the critics weeks later.
On January 8, Twitter permanently banned Trump from his services after the siege of the Capitol that left five dead.