{"id":153906,"date":"2026-03-05T13:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T13:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/153906\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T13:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T13:06:11","slug":"paladino-assembling-legal-team-to-challenge-ethics-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/153906\/","title":{"rendered":"Paladino assembling legal team to challenge ethics case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queens Councilmember Vickie Paladino says she is preparing a legal response after the City Council moved to discipline her over social media posts<\/a> that drew accusations of Islamophobia.<\/p>\n

Paladino, a Republican who represents parts of northern Queens, said she is assembling a legal team and plans to challenge the proceedings, arguing her posts are protected by the First Amendment.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake, this mockery of the First Amendment will not stand,\u201d Paladino wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Queens Councilmember Vickie Paladino says she is assembling a legal team to fight disciplinary charges over social media posts
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The City Council\u2019s ethics committee voted this week to charge her with disorderly conduct and violating anti-harassment and discrimination policies
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Paladino argues the action violates her First Amendment rights
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Experts say possible penalties could include censure or removal from committee assignments<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s Committee on Rules, Privileges, Elections, Standards and Ethics voted Monday to charge Paladino with disorderly conduct and violating the council\u2019s anti-harassment and discrimination policy.<\/p>\n

The action followed criticism of several posts by the lawmaker, including one last year in which she wrote \u2014 and later deleted \u2014 that \u201cwe need to take very seriously the need to begin the expulsion of Muslims from Western Nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

J.C. Polanco, an attorney and professor at the University of Mount Saint Vincent, said it is relatively unusual for the council to bring ethics charges related to social media activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo review council members\u2019 postings on social media and to see these types of charges, it\u2019s not something that is frequently done,\u201d Polanco said.<\/p>\n

If the case moves forward, potential penalties could include censure, which is a formal public reprimand, or removal from committee assignments, Polanco said.<\/p>\n

Council Speaker Julie Menin had already limited Paladino\u2019s committee roles earlier this year amid backlash over her remarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have so strongly condemned Councilmember Paladino\u2019s rhetoric repeatedly,\u201d Menin previously said during an appearance on \u201cInside City Hall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Employment attorney Jon Bell said Paladino\u2019s free speech defense may face hurdles because the case involves internal council rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people argue about free speech, it\u2019s more about the government charging you criminally for free speech, and there\u2019s no criminality here,\u201d Bell said. \u201cIf you have ethical standards against discrimination and harassment that everyone\u2019s aware of, if you have a policy \u2014 of course, the agency can discipline somebody for breaching those policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Paladino\u2019s district in northern Queens, some constituents said they support her right to speak freely online, while others said elected officials should be more careful about their rhetoric.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s free speech. Say what you want to say \u2014 what you have to say,\u201d one constituent said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do want to preserve free speech, everything this country stands for,\u201d another said. \u201cBut it would be nice if politicians were a little bit more sensitive, maybe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paladino has several days to submit a written response before appearing before the ethics committee in executive session in the coming weeks. Any disciplinary recommendation would require approval from two-thirds of the full City Council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queens Councilmember Vickie Paladino says she is preparing a legal response after the City Council moved to discipline…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[109,25,3407,9,24,55,54,12,56,87,27,200],"class_list":["post-153906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-ayana-harry","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-politics","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}