A Michigan Mayor Tried To Stop Constituents From Criticizing Her. Now, They're Suing.
Monique Owens shouted over critical speakers at a September city council meeting, claiming it was her "First Amendment right."
"I'm gonna talk over you. This gonna be one of those meetings ya'll never seen before," Monique Owens, Mayor of Eastpointe, Michigan, told one constituent during a September city council meeting.
Owens repeatedly attempted to shout down speakers during the meeting—even while other council members urged her to stop. For her behavior, she's now facing a lawsuit alleging that she violated constituents' First Amendment rights.
During a city council meeting on September 6th, 2022, Monique Owens frequently interrupted constituents who attempted to speak in favor of Harvey Curley—an Eastpoint Councilman with whom Owens has been engaged in an ongoing dispute. Despite being frequently warned by her fellow councilmembers—and being told by the city attorney that the speakers "have a right to address the city council or they may speak individually about a member of the council as well," Owens continued to shout down critical speakers.
"I also have my First Amendment right," Owens replied to the city attorney. "And if you saying something I don't like, as my First Amendment right, whether a mayor or not a mayor, I'm going to speak."
On November 9th, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) filed a lawsuit on behalf of four speakers at Eastpointe City Council meetings. The lawsuit alleges that Owens and the city of Eastpointe violated the plaintiffs' constitutional rights in two ways. First, the lawsuit claims that Owens violated plaintiffs' rights by shouting over them and preventing them from speaking directly.
"Mayor Owens frequently uses her authority . . . to suppress dissent and criticism by interrupting and shouting down members of the public who criticize her or raise subjects she finds personally embarrassing," wrote FIRE attorneys in the lawsuit. "Mayor Owens, however, allows members of the public to praise her and to criticize the other members of the City Council."
Secondly, the lawsuit alleges that Owens attempted to stop one plaintiff by invoking a city policy that requires that speakers "direct their comments to the Council as a body, not to an individual member of Council or the public." Not only is this rule unconstitutional—it is also enforced selectively. In March, Owens forced one plaintiff to change her remarks to remove criticism of Owens—yet at the previous meeting, Owens allowed a speaker to call her "beautiful" and "wonderful."
"City council meetings aren't safe spaces for elected officials," said FIRE attorney Harrison Rosenthal said in a Thursday press release. "They're opportunities for politicians to get honest feedback from the public. FIRE will make sure that Owens and other mayors tempted to abuse their authority get the message that the First Amendment trumps their ego."
Residents hope the lawsuit will send a strong message to the local politician on a massive ego trip. "I love Eastpointe. Eastpointe is my home," Mary Hall-Rayford, a plaintiff in the case, told FIRE. "But every resident should have the freedom to express their thoughts about what happens in their community."
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She’s just a typical wokidiot. She won’t learn a damned thing.
It’s kind of like how people who have those vapid ‘COEXIST’ bumper stickers are almost without fail the least likely people to tolerate dissenting opinions.
“Diversity” is a literal skin suit these totalitarians put on.
Literal? You are David Icke and I claim my £5.
Thanks- now I can claim my £10 for turning you both over to Pseud’sCorner at Private Eye.
He’s just adopting the language of you leftists.
I think he meant reptillians.
Please learn what the word “literal” means.In this case the word”virtual” is correct.
figurative
allegorical
metaphorical
She isn’t all that “progressive”. Check out the Wikipedia article on her: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monique_Owens She seems to be unprogressive on LGBT issues.
Speaking of people not learning a damned thing, do we get to find out what the tiff with Harvey Curley is about or is it just assumed that Reason and FIRE would never defend anyone who wants to sexualize schoolchildren?
Residents hope the lawsuit will send a strong message to the local politician on a massive ego trip.
If residents of Eastpointe, or any jurisdiction for that matter, really want to send a strong message, stop electing imbeciles like this!
Don’t bet on it. They probably voted to re-elect Whitmer.
Exactly. Whether or not I agreed with her political positions, if she was the mayor of my town I would vote for someone else in the next election and if the opportunity were available would support recall. It shouldn’t be necessary to file suit.
I also wonder whether she could not be arrested for disorderly conduct.
Spoken like a true strong black woman. The world needs to recognize the elevated status these dingers have.
Exactly. The dingers should be recognized for who they really are. Isn’t that right?
From her wiki:
“Owens filed on April 15 to run for the Republican nomination for state senate in the 11th district. Four days later, she withdrew from the Republican primary and filed to run in the Democratic primary in the same district.”
Seriously?
That’s not sketchy at all. Totes on the up and up. We promise.
Did she win in a landslide?
She had help from John Fetterman.
Children shouldn’t be given adult jobs.
Hope she goes to jail and is sued. First Amendment, bitch, do you know it?
Sovereign immunity or just qualified immunity?
Qualified Immunity is not a defence when you knowingly violate the constitution. She had been warned by the city lawyer and other council members. She can’t claim ignorance.
ProTip: don’t vote for skanks.
-jcr
Kamala hardest hit
You quit talkin bout whitmer that way! even if it’s true.
Not surprised she felt entitled to shout others down. That’s at the core of woke ideology. If someone claims they are a member of an oppressed group, only their views are acceptable.
After a jury found Amber Heard guilty of defamation, she and her supporters claimed it was her first amendment right. According to Heard, she can say whatever she wants including lies so long as it’s directed at an “oppressor”.
Equity is the opposite of equality.
Equity is the value of the portion of your property you own, minus the debt on the mortgage.
As typical, the left has taken words and given them random nonsense postmodern meanings to fit or obscure or propagandize their world view – but we don’t have to accept it.
Their version of the word ‘equity’ is what we all used to call ‘equality of outcomes’ – WHICH IS A VERY BAD IDEA WHEN PUT IN PRACTICE – and they are trying to conflate it with ‘equality of opportunity’ – which is usually a good goal in general – to confuse people as to their actual purpose, which is Marxism, the deadliest philosophy in the history of the world.
https://reason.com/volokh/2022/11/09/data-on-mass-murder-by-government-in-the-20th-century/
and they are trying to conflate it with ‘equality of opportunity’ – which is usually a good goal in general
Incorrect. Equality of opportunity is not a good goal. It still contains an positive right to equality via the law. What can be done as a goal, if not in practice, is equality before the law, a.k.a. reciprocity, is better than both. Lebron James and I will never have equal opportunities to attain multiple degrees and play in the NBA, no amount of equality of opportunity, in goal or in practice, will fix it. What Lebron James and I already have, is equality before the law, where nothing legally prevents him or I from attaining degrees or competing the NBA.
Considering this is in Michigan, which is filled with low information, near literate voters and especially those with the memory of a canary, voted to return Whitmer to the governor’s office for a second round of abuse and failure.
Well Done!
“Democracy is the pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.” H.L. Mencken
Telling a Black woman she’s too loud is white supremacy.
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Our Asheville mayor, Esther Elizabeth Manheimer, is a bit like this one. Esther is a tyrant who likes constituents to believe she runs the city, although our city charter and ordinances make it a CITY MANAGER form of municipal government.
She has threatened prosecutions for “hate speech,” whatever that is.
She has dissenters thrown out of council meetings, even calls a cop to have them muscled out of City Hall’s council chambers, and for as little a reason as they are from the other party. She definitely is a tyrant. She bans anyone who is not servile and agreeable with her on Twitter. She has banned me…and many more. ACLU was interested in my proposed litigation to remove the ban, until they found she was their breed of progressive. Then ACLU went silent. Caselaw has already decided that an elected official, such as President Trump and any number of other elected officials, are prohibited from banning constituents who do not grovel… or who are disagreeable.
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