N環球 
Free-speech groups sue LA City Council over ban on certain words at meetings
FIRE and the First Amendment Coalition sued the city of Los Angeles on Tuesday on behalf of resident Stacey Segarra-Bohlinger, arguing the council's July 2025 ban on specific slurs and their variations during public comment violates the First Amendment; they seek to strike down the rule and win damages.
Why it matters
The lawsuit puts a direct question before a court: can a government ban specific words at public hearings? The council president has publicly called the ban only "the first step" toward broader speech regulation — exactly the kind of government censorship the plaintiffs say the First Amendment exists to prevent.
What happened
In July 2025, the Los Angeles City Council adopted a rule barring speakers from using certain offensive slurs — and their plural forms and suffix variations — during public comment at council and committee meetings. Violators can be removed, barred for the rest of the day, and repeat offenders shut out of meetings for up to six business days.
The two groups wrote to the council on July 23, 2026 asking it to repeal the rule; the council did not respond. On Tuesday, Oct 6, FIRE and the First Amendment Coalition filed suit on behalf of Los Angeles resident Stacey Segarra-Bohlinger. Bohlinger had protested the ban by singing parody songs at council meetings and was warned and removed in October and December, then barred from subsequent meetings.
The suit argues the ban violates the First Amendment — the government may condemn offensive speech but may not ban speech based on its content — and California's Ralph M. Brown Act, which requires government meetings to stay open to the public and guarantees public participation absent actual disruption.
"Giving government officials the power to decide which words people are allowed to use is exactly the kind of censorship the First Amendment is meant to prevent," said FIRE attorney Zach Silver. "If the First Amendment means anything, it means the government can't tell people how they can criticize the government," said David Loy, the First Amendment Coalition's legal director.
What the suit seeks
The plaintiffs ask the court to strike down the word ban and the related meeting-exclusion rule, block the council from enforcing them, and award damages for the violation of Bohlinger's First Amendment rights.
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