By Ryan Schwach<\/p>\n
A Manhattan judge this week declined to rule from the bench on whether the City Council should halt its ethics case against Queens Republican Councilmember Vickie Paladino.<\/p>\n
Judge Sabrina Kraus on Tuesday heard arguments from Paladino and the Council about the Queens lawmaker\u2019s lawsuit, in which she accused the Council of violating her First Amendment rights when they said a series of Islamophobic social media posts she made qualified as workplace harassment. <\/p>\n
While Kraus didn\u2019t make an immediate ruling, she appeared critical of the Council\u2019s argument against Paladino. Kraus questioned how the statements Paladino made \u2013 which included calling for the expulsion of Muslims from western nations \u2013 would rise to workplace harassment. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t see how a tweet on a personal account or statements on a personal account disrupt the Council proceedings,\u201d she said during the city\u2019s portion of the arguments at 60 Centre Street on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
She also seemed to question the motivation behind the Council\u2019s actions, picking up on an argument Paladino has made, accusing the Democratic majority of singling out a Republican member. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt does seem like the majority is attacking the minority, right?\u201d Kraus said.<\/p>\n
The judge also seemed to shoot down expulsion as a potential consequence of the Council’s forthcoming ethics case against Paladino, and pushed the two parties to reach some sort of agreement out of court before the Council\u2019s proceedings officially begin. <\/p>\n
The judge said that Paladino \u201cseems like somebody who\u2019s willing to work with [the Council],\u201d noting that she deleted the post that led to the charges after being asked to do so by City Council Speaker Julie Menin \u2013 subsequent posts expressing similar anti-Muslim statements have remained on Paladino\u2019s feed despite pushback. <\/p>\n
The Tuesday hearing was Paladino\u2019s second appearance in court in her case against the Council for disciplinary actions it\u2019s taken against her for the posts. <\/p>\n
Paladino claimed the charges violated her First Amendment rights. The Council has moved to dismiss the lawsuit, calling it \u201cmeritless\u201d and \u201cabsurd.\u201d <\/p>\n
While the Council\u2019s own hearings against the lawmaker have yet to begin, an injunction from the judge could halt the proceedings entirely. <\/p>\n
Outside the courthouse, Paladino said she was pleased with the hearing and the judge\u2019s remarks. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a very, very well-read judge,\u201d she said. \u201cShe understood everything that was going on.\u201d <\/p>\n
She added that she would be willing to come to an agreement with the Council outside of court. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnybody who knows Vickie Paladino knows that Vickie Paladino is always looking to work something out,\u201d she said. \u201cI am not some narrow-minded sort of person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her attorney, former mayoral candidate Jim Walden, said he hopes a permanent injunction is granted, which would put an end to the Council\u2019s disciplinary proceedings against the Queens councilmember. <\/p>\n
Toward the end of the hearing, Kraus characterized Paladino\u2019s comments as \u201cproblematic,\u201d and \u201chateful,\u201d but argued that even hateful speech is protected. <\/p>\n
When asked about the judge\u2019s characterization, Paladino said statements made by Democratic and progressive councilmembers have been equally hateful but not met with the same disciplinary threat. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have never, ever in a million years, thought to bring an ethics investigation against any one of them,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy is that? Because they are entitled to their right to free speech.\u201d <\/p>\n
Walden continued to defend his client’s comments. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere was not an intent there to say all Muslims should be deported,\u201d he said. \u201cShe doesn’t believe that, and she’s got many Muslim constituents that she cares very much about.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ryan Schwach A Manhattan judge this week declined to rule from the bench on whether the City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-197386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197386","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=197386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}