GOP Twitter block will cost Wisconsin taxpayers $200,000

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin taxpayers will pay a liberal group’s attorneys $200,000 because Republican lawmakers blocked them on Twitter.

State officials agreed Thursday to pay the legal bills for One Wisconsin Now’s attorneys, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A federal judge ruled in January that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Rep. John Nygren, both Republicans, had infringed on the group’s First Amendment rights.

One Wisconsin Now routinely criticizes Republicans on Twitter and other platforms. In 2017, it sued Vos, Nygren and then-Rep. Jesse Kremer of Kewaskum for blocking it.

U.S. District Judge William Conley concluded the three lawmakers had acted unconstitutionally by blocking the group on Twitter “because of its prior speech or identity.”

Kremer didn’t run for reelection and was dropped from the lawsuit after he shut down his official Twitter account.