The U.S. Department of Justice's top civil rights official urged a federal appeals court Thursday to block as unconstitutional a state representative's Laurel Libby’s punishment for her online post criticizing a transgender student athlete’s sports win.

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit that the Maine legislature violated Rep. Laurel Libby's First Amendment right to free speech when it barred her from voting and speaking on the legislative floor. Dhillon, who heads the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, added that stripping Libby's voting rights disregarded her constituents' right to representation in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

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