Life can get pretty tricky here in the adult world. That is a lesson that soon-to-be Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez keeps re-learning with each new tweet though she never seems to internalize it.
Earlier this month, she threatened Donald Trump, Jr. over a meme he had posted by reminding him that she was “a member of a body that will have subpoena power in a month.” She was summarily admonished on Twitter by people who understand the rules of that body better than she does:
The House prohibition on the very kind of threat that @Ocasio2018 just made to @DonaldTrumpJr couldn’t be clearer: lawmakers are “prohibited from threatening punitive action” against people/groups for not politically supporting the lawmaker. Ethics Committee should investigate. pic.twitter.com/NNIPp1vsyv
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 7, 2018
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Now she has stepped in it again, this time flouting a ruling handed down by a federal judge last May. The ruling, by Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, held that government officials were not permitted to block people with differing opinions from replying to their tweets. The argument behind the ruling was that such Twitter accounts are “public forums” and that blocking people with differing opinions constitutes “viewpoint discrimination, which violates the First Amendment.”
The ruling was made in reaction to Donald Trump’s blocking of dissidents on Twitter, but what’s sauce for the goose and all that.
According to the DC Chronicle, Ocasio-Cortez blocked Michael Moates, the blog’s chairman, after he became embroiled in the Trump Jr. meme kerfuffle:
He responded to the original post by Don Jr. which was of a dog. Moates said “there is a new standard in Congress. Bitches will subpoena you if you troll them.”
Evidence of the block is provided by the screenshot that follows:
