NYC Council member Vickie Paladino sues to block council discipline over posts disparaging Muslims

Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News on Mar 9, 2026

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NEW YORK — Council member Vickie Paladino filed a lawsuit against the New York City Council on Monday in an effort to stop a disciplinary process against her for a series of posts disparaging Muslims.

Paladino argued in the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit that her comments, including a post where she called for the “expulsion of Muslims from western nations,” were protected speech and separate from her Council duties.

“The Council intends to set a dangerous precedent for every legislator: if we don’t like your speech, we are coming after you,” says the lawsuit — filed by attorney Jim Walden, a critic of Mayor Zohran Mamdani who ran against him as an independent in last year’s election.

The suit comes after the Council Ethics Committee voted earlier this month to charge Paladino for her Islamaphobic posts. Council speaker Julie Menin has also limited her involvement in council committees,

At a court appearance on Monday, a Manhattan Supreme Court justice denied Paladino’s request for a temporary injunction, but set a hearing for April 7, Walden said. The judge said Paladino doesn’t need to respond to the internal City Council case until after a decision is rendered following the April hearing.

The Queens councilmember has a history of highly controversial remarks.

In a since-deleted post in December, Paladino said that “we’re in the midst of a global jihad” and called for the “expulsion of Muslims from western nations” after a terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia.

In another post, Paladino criticized Mamdani’s appointment of Faiza Ali — a Muslim woman born and raised in Brooklyn — as the commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.

“New York is under foreign occupation. There’s really no other way to put it,” Paladino said. “Does this administration have one single actual American in it?”

The suit also comes after Speaker Julie Menin only let Paladino sit at on two committees because of the offensive posts about Muslims and other minorities.

“There are numerous, numerous, too many to count content on her social media that is abhorrent and is unacceptable, and so I made that decision about the committees with that in mind because we are not going to tolerate that kind of conduct and that kind of divisiveness within the body,” Menin said in January.

Jack Lobel, a spokesperson for the speaker, said the Ethics Committee has opened a matter about Paladino but wouldn’t comment further.

Paladino argued in the suit she’s being subjected to different treatment because of her conservative political stance. She also argued that the posts were sent out in the early morning hours, not during the work day.

“Everyone’s got a right to say what they want,” Walden told the Daily News.

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