LOS ANGELES, CA — A pair of free speech groups Tuesday filed suit on behalf of a Los Angeles resident against the city after the council banned certain words during public meetings, an action the groups claim is a violation of the First Amendment.
Last year, the Los Angeles City Council banned the words during public comment periods — words that, however offensive, are protected speech. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles federal court by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and First Amendment Coalition, comes after the council ignored a letter from the groups that outlined the ban's constitutional issues, the free speech advocates said.
In July 2025, the Los Angeles City Council enacted the ban in response to complaints about attendees using the words while speaking during the public-comment portion of meetings. The text of the word ban doesn't identify the words directly, instead spelling them out.
"A public speaker may not use the N-word or C-word, or any variation of either of these words, in a Council or Committee meeting," according to the wording of the ban.
Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, the primary sponsor of the rule, has said the word ban is only the first step in council leadership's plan to more broadly regulate speech it deems offensive, according to FIRE.
"This is as much a step as we can take at this moment, we believe," Harris-Dawson said, according to FIRE. "But we think it will open us up to take additional steps in the future."
A representative of the City Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
FIRE plaintiff Stacey Bohlinger responded to the ban last October at a council meeting. Singing to the tune of the "Ghostbusters" theme, she criticized the policy and the council for being "afraid" of the C-word.
"Kind of insane how you're more offended by bad words than police brutalizing citizens and journalists in the streets," she said at the podium in downtown Los Angeles, according to FIRE.
The council warned that if she used a banned word again, she would be removed. Two months later, Bohlinger protested the ban again, using a banned work to the tune of Adele's "Someone Like You," according to FIRE.
The council again warned her, then removed her from the meeting when she repeated the word.
In addition to prohibiting the banned words and their variations, the council adopted a separate rule banning someone who is removed from a meeting from attending future meetings through at least the end of the following business day and for up to six business days depending on their recent removal history, the suit says.
According to the lawsuit, the First Amendment limits the council's authority to restrict the public's speech at its meetings. While the council can address actual disruption when it occurs, it can't simply declare specific words off limits and deem their mere utterance disruptive, the suit claims. Nor can the council bar people from future meetings based on what happened at a past one, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit also alleges the speech restrictions violate the Ralph M. Brown Act, a California law that requires government meetings to be open to the public and guarantees the public's participation absent actual disruption of a meeting.
"If the First Amendment means anything, it means the government can't tell people how they can criticize the government," David Loy, the First Amendment Coalition's legal director, said in a statement. "This kind of censorship is a threat to everyone's freedom of speech."
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