- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is being slammed with two separate lawsuits.
- The plaintiffs in both lawsuits claim Ocasio-Cortez blocked them on Twitter, and are seeking injunctions demanding to be unblocked.
- A recent US appeals court judgment said President Trump isn’t allowed to block people on Twitter, and the two suits against Rep. Ocasio-Cortez are leaning on that ruling.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is being sued by two individuals who say the congresswoman blocked them on Twitter.
In both lawsuits, the plaintiffs are seeking injunctive relief from a court that would force Ocasio-Cortez to unblock the individuals.
“I have officially filed my lawsuit against AOC for blocking me on Twitter,” congressional candidate Joseph Saladino, one of the two men suing Ocasio-Cortez, tweeted on Wednesday. “Trump is not allowed to block people, will the standards apply equally? Stay tuned to find out!”
Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not respond to a request for comment regarding the lawsuits as of publishing.
Both Saladino and the other man who filed suit, former state assemblyman Dov Hikind, point to a recent ruling in a US appeals court that said President Trump wasn't legally allowed to block people from following him on Twitter.
"The First Amendment does not permit a public official who utilizes a social media account for all manner of official purposes to exclude persons from an otherwise‐open online dialogue because they expressed views with which the official disagrees," the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit said in its ruling.
Since both Ocasio-Cortez and President Trump are public officials, and since both use Twitter for official purposes, the ruling would seemingly apply in a similar way to all public officials.
