by - A far-right commentator who went viral for harassing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is suing her.
- Alex Stein’s attorney argues that Ocasio-Cortez violated his client’s First Amendment rights.
- Stein wants a court to help him break his block.
A far-right commentator who harassed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the steps of the Capitol last year filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging AOC violated its First Amendment rights by doing so.
Alex Stein, a commentator at TheBlazeTV, a media network founded by Glenn Beck, attracted attention in June 2022 after filming himself yelling at Ocasio-Cortez, calling her his “favorite big-booty latina” and accusing her of “babies wanting to kill.” “
In the lawsuit, Stein alleges that Ocasio-Cortez was actually flattered by his comments, allegedly evidenced by the fact that she threw him a peace sign but blocked him when she “realized” he wasn’t a political ally. The lawsuit also includes a screenshot of Stein’s account showing that he was banned.
Stein’s attorney is demanding that he be immediately unbanned from the @AOC Twitter account, Ocasio-Cortez’s personal account, which the lawsuit describes as her de facto “official” account.
The Knight First Amendment Institute lawsuit against Donald J. Trump, in which a federal judge ruled in 2018 that Trump violated the First Amendment by blocking his critics on Twitter through his personal @realdonaldtrump account. The ruling noted that personal accounts “may become government accounts if they become an organ of official business.”
“Mr. Stein wishes to engage in political discussions on the robust public forum that is Ms. Cortez’s massive Twitter account,” Stein’s attorney wrote.
However, another lawsuit, Campbell v. Reisch, claimed that certain accounts held by government officials — even those that sometimes tweet about official government operations — can still be considered personal and are therefore exempt from this rule.
After Stein’s harassment, Ocasio-Cortez called the incident “deeply disgusting” and said Stein was seeking “extremist glory.” Ocasio-Cortez also later criticized Capitol Police for not taking action in response to Stein’s comments
As for why she approached him and showed a peace sign after his salacious comments, Ocasio-Cortez said she “actually went over to him to cover him” but decided to back off.
Ocasio-Cortez has previously been sued for blocking people on Twitter, and some First Amendment experts have criticized her for doing so. In 2019, the congresswoman apologized and settled a lawsuit filed by former Brooklyn Rep. Dov Hikind, a conservative she previously blocked.
However, she said in 2019 that she will not stop blocking people on her personal @AOC account and she stands by her decision.
“However, now and in the future, I reserve the right to ban any user who engages in actual harassment or exploits my personal/campaign account @AOC for commercial or other inappropriate purposes,” she said in a 2019 statement to Insider.
A representative for Ocasio-Cortez and an attorney for Stein did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
