Lisa Sweeney-Miran Sues the City of Boulder Claiming Free Speech and Due Process Violations Based on the City’s Removal of Her From the Police Oversight Panel

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Boulder, Colo. – Today Hutchinson Black and Cook, LLC, legal counsel for Lisa Sweeney-Miran, filed a First Amendment lawsuit concerning the May 2023 removal of Ms. Sweeney-Miran from Boulder’s Police Oversight Panel (“POP”). The removal followed a monthslong dispute that highlighted community disagreements between law-and-order groups and social justice organizations across the city.

The lawsuit challenges three constitutional violations. First, by removing Ms. Sweeney-Miran from the POP based on her speech critical of police violence and police overreach, the City violated Ms. Sweeney-Miran’s First Amendment right to free speech. Second, the Boulder City Council removed Ms. Sweeney-Miran from the POP without allowing her an opportunity to be heard, which violated Ms. Sweeney-Miran’s 14th Amendment right to due process. Third, prior to her appointment, members of Boulder’s City Council pressured Ms. Sweeney-Miran to withdraw from a pending lawsuit challenging the City’s unconstitutional actions against homeless community members. In doing so, the City of Boulder violated Ms. Sweeney-Miran’s First Amendment right to petition the government.

Boulder’s POP, created in 2019, arose from concerns that the Boulder Police Department’s
mechanisms to police itself were inadequate. It was formed immediately following what many
perceived as the racially-biased stop of a Black college student in Boulder, Zayd Atkinson, who
was held at gunpoint and interrogated while taking a rest from picking up trash in front of his
apartment building. Ironically, just a few years later, when faced with a new POP member who
publicly condemned just that sort of dangerous and biased policing, the Boulder City Council
capitulated to demands from law-and-order groups in the community for Ms. Sweeney-Miran’s
removal.

“I am bringing this lawsuit because Boulder not only can be, but must be, a leader in police reform
and accountability. Our city guaranteed that things would be different after the terrible events of 2019. Yet we are not a month out from the most recent police killing with no real information publicly available, no accountability on the part of the police department, and no sense of safety or trust between the people of Boulder and the police department,” said Ms. Sweeney-Miran. “It is important that we hold the City accountable for its constitutional violations; this accountability will ensure that things like this don’t happen again – it will ensure that our city understands that it must respect the rights of people in our community.”

Said Dan Williams, Ms. Sweeney-Miran’s attorney: “Boulder’s police department has a difficult
legacy of misconduct, from racial profiling to excessive force to improper use of deadly weapons
against civilians. When the rubber hit the road, Boulder’s City Council caved to the status quo by removing Ms. Sweeney-Miran from the oversight panel rather than demand a new chapter of accountability for the Boulder Police Department, at the expense of one of its community member’s foundational constitutional rights.”

A copy of the Complaint can be accessed here: Sweeney-Miran Complaint.pdf