By Ryan Schwach
Queens Republican Councilmember Vickie Paladino shot back after she was charged by the Council’s ethics committee over a slew of Islamophobic remarks she made on social media in recent months.
The Northern Queens elected criticized the Council’s ethics committee in a lengthy social media post Tuesday night, and appeared to threaten a lawsuit, arguing the charges infringe on her First Amendment rights.
Paladino was charged with “engaging in disorderly behavior and violating the Council’s Anti-Harassment and Discrimination Policy,” according to a Council spokesperson. The Committee on Rules, Privileges, Elections, Standards and Ethics handed down the charges on Monday after being asked to expedite its investigation into Paladino’s posts by Speaker Julie Menin.
The charges came after Paladino made a number of Islamophobic remarks on social media, calling for the expulsion of Muslims from western nations while also claiming that Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, was plotting a Muslim takeover of city government.
Paladino said her remarks, which drew widespread condemnation, were protected speech.
“On Monday, the City Council ethics committee, under political pressure from the speaker, moved forward with an unconstitutional scheme to violate my First Amendment rights by charging me with ‘disorderly conduct’ for constitutionally protected political speech on social media,” she said in a post on X.
Paladino, who has been censured by the body before, argued her comments did not contain threats of violence, and that the Council’s actions were an illegal restriction of her speech.
“I have every right to speak my mind on social media without fear of retaliation by my government, as does every American,” she said. “The fact that this egregious disregard for the Constitution was allowed to proceed to this point is a stain on our Council, and on New York City.”
Paladino is scheduled to appear before the committee in an executive session in the coming weeks.
A lawsuit might come before then, Paladino said.
“My legal team will respond to this egregious violation of my rights swiftly,” she said.
The initial inquiry into Paladino’s remarks began at the start of the year, when Menin first took office. Several weeks before the start of the legislative year, Paladino made several posts to X following the killing of 13 people at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia by a pair of gunmen.
Paladino resumed posting similar messages in February, claiming Mamdani’s appointment of New York City born-and-raised Faiza Ali was proof the city was “under foreign occupation.”
“There’s really no other way to put it,” Paladino posted. “Does this administration have one single actual American in it?”
Paladino’s messages continued when she said in a post that Islamophobia was a “fake term invented by radicals to cut off justified criticism of imperialist and violent political Islam and the overwhelmingly negative impacts it’s had all across the West for decades now.”
After Paladino’s February posts, Menin said the messages appeared to violate the Council’s harassment policies.
“Councilmember Paladino’s continued rhetoric is unacceptable and deeply Islamophobic,” she said in a statement to the Eagle last month. This deplorable, inflammatory conduct negatively affects Council employees and people across our city. New York City is the most diverse city in the world, and we will not tolerate behavior that targets or demeans any community based on their faith, background, or immigration status — particularly from our own members.”
Paladino’s other council colleagues have also been critical of her comments. Brooklyn Councilmember Shahana Hanif, the only Muslim member of the Council, called her out on the Council floor, and Queens City Councilmember Shekar Krishnan called the posts “absolutely disgusting.”
Krishnan is one of two Queens members on the committee that charged Paladino, along with Councilmember Sandra Ung, who chairs the committee and declined to comment on Wednesday.
Paladino has been in hot water with her co-workers before.
In 2023, she was censured by the Council and kicked from her committee assignment for comments she made accusing Drag Story Hour NYC, a nonprofit that puts on storytelling events hosted by people in drag at local libraries and schools, of grooming children.
More recently, she has been criticized for comments seemingly calling for violence against a journalist and for jokingly advocating for New Yorkers to damage congestion pricing cameras with lasers.