Lori Lightfoot being sued for alleged racial discrimination against white reporter

At least one media outlet is taking Chicago's Mayor to court after her recent announcement of excluding white reporters from being allowed to interview her.

On Thursday morning the Daily Caller announced their news foundation and Judicial Watch have filed a lawsuit against Lori Lightfoot over her new race-based policies.

The aim of the suit, according to Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton, is getting a court to officially label Lightfoot’s actions as unlawful.

It was last week that Lightfoot chose to celebrate the two-year anniversary of her time in office by announcing this move. According to her, excluding white reporters entirely is putting diversity “front and center” for the city.  Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters gathered outside Lightfoot’s home to speak out about Lightfoot’s poor performance since taking office.

Chicago’s Mayor went as far as calling it a “shame” that the reporters who covered City Hall were “overwhelmingly white.” The controversy got heated enough last week that former Democratic Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard pushed back against Lightfoot’s policies.

Thomas Catenacci, a white reporter, wanted to interview Mayor Lightfoot about how Chicago was trying to get people vaccinated for COVID-19. To that end Catenacci emailed Lightfoot’s office three times. Once on the 20th, again on the 21st, and a third time on the 24th.

They didn’t hear back at all. Catenacci remarked:

“Preventing journalists from doing our jobs in such a blatantly discriminatory way is wrong and does a disservice to our readers who come from all backgrounds. Every journalist and every person who consumes the news should be concerned by Mayor Lightfoot’s actions.”

The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, claims that "Lightfoot’s denial violates the DCNF and Catenacci’s First Amendment rights and Catenacci’s right to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment."