DENVER (KDVR) — An activist who often speaks before the Aurora City Council filed a lawsuit on Wednesday, accusing the city of trying to silence her and other activists, but has also silenced the entire community in the process.

The lawsuit stems from action taken by council members on June 9. The group voted 7-3 in favor of moving the council meetings online to prevent disruptions while another lawsuit, filed on behalf of a man shot and killed by Aurora police, works its way through the court system.

At the same time, the group voted to stop all public comment while the meetings are held virtually.

On Wednesday, MiDian Shofner's attorneys filed a lawsuit and requested an immediate injunction to end the ban on public comments. Shofner has spoken at Aurora City Council meetings during the public comment portion for the past year, according to a press release sent by her attorney, seeing accountability in the death of Kilyn Lewis, an unarmed Black man.

The 37-year-old was shot and killed by an Aurora police officer in May 2024. In October, the district attorney ruled that an officer who shot Lewis would not face charges. A lawsuit was filed by Lewis' family in May, seeking accountability from the police department for Lewis' death. The suit discusses excessive force, wrongful death and violations of the family’s constitutional rights.

Shofner was featured in an image posted by Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman on June 10, announcing that in-person meetings were suspended "to stop disruptions until lawsuit is settled." Her attorneys said in a release sent late Wednesday night that his post makes it clear that the ban is targeting Shofner and her words at Aurora City Council meetings.

“The architects of the ban on public comment, specifically Danielle Jurinsky and Mike Coffman, are thin-skinned hypocrites who are the first to cry ‘I’ve been cancelled’ when someone calls them out for their vile and baseless political attacks, but waste no time engaging in actual censorship by using their government authority to retaliate against Black women speaking truth to power," said Andy McNulty, Shofner's attorney, in a release. "The ban on public comment is nothing more than the snowflakes on Aurora City Council shutting down important political discourse because they don’t like being criticized.”

The city's offices were closed Thursday for observance of Juneteenth, but a spokesperson told FOX31 that the city has not been served or noticed of the lawsuit, and thus cannot comment.

"If there is a lawsuit, the city will strongly defend itself against it," the spokesperson said.

Activist says city is in violation of First Amendment

Shofner said that her lawsuit is not just for herself, but to hold the council accountable to the public.

"For far too long, Aurora’s City Council has employed tactics of erasure and demonization to suppress those who dare to speak out, to demand justice, and to envision accountability as something more than rhetoric. That era must come to an end," Shofner said in a release. "Though my name appears as the plaintiff, the facts themselves serve as a protector of the public trust, reminding those in positions of authority that the law is not a shield to evade consequence, but a tool of the people, meant to secure truth, enforce transparency, and drive transformation.”

Mari Newman, a second attorney for Shofner, said that Aurora has "earned a reputation for persistently violating its citizens' civil rights with one of the most brutal and racist police forces in the country."

Newman said that now, Aurora is earning a new reputation for silencing community members demanding better.

"From shutting down a violin vigil honoring the life of Elijah McClain and protesting police violence, to banning community members from peacefully petitioning City Council demanding accountability for the killing of Kylin Lewis, Aurora officials refuse to respect the First Amendment rights of its citizens who decry police brutality," Newman wrote in a release. "Instead of listening to a community that demands accountability for the Aurora Police Department’s decades of killing and brutalizing unarmed Black men including Jamaal Bonner, Elijah McClain, and Kylin Lewis – and putting an end to its abhorrent dehumanizing culture – Aurora’s officials continue to illegally silence the very community that they were elected to represent.”

Shofner is asking the court for relief based on the First Amendment, seeking specifically injunctive and declaratory relief, damages, and an order to reverse the public comment ban, issue an apology to Shofner, impose a policy to prevent similar misconduct, and mandatory training to prevent something like this from happening again.