U.S. Rep. Sean Casten said he won’t hold back from criticizing Awake Illinois, which rallied its supporters against a drag-themed library event in Downers Grove, after the group last week threatened to take legal action against him.
U.S. Rep. Sean Casten talks with Anne Bohne, right, during a voter community event on May 22, 2022, in Western Springs.
The Naperville-based group, which got its start opposing pandemic restrictions, last week sent an email and letter to Casten alleging that he was “unlawfully exploiting the mission of Awake Illinois with defamatory claims.
“Let’s be clear. This event was canceled because, after my Republican opponent and his far-right allies at Awake Illinois publicly issued a call-to-action to their supporters, the library received severe threats that endangered our community,” the congressman said. “They are just ordinary political statements that are fully protected by the First Amendment,” Stone wrote in an email. “Only factually false statements made can constitute defamation, and even then they have to be either negligently or recklessly made.”
In his early August news release, a Casten spokesman criticized Pekau for accepting an award from the group last spring that cited his refusal to follow Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s coronavirus restrictions during the height of the pandemic.Later in August, Pekau in a Facebook post criticized the Downers Grove library event as “inappropriate,” likened it to “a library introducing kids to straight sex by holding a burlesque show,” and called on Casten to join him in denouncing it.
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