The Iowa Libertarian Party is suing state Sen. Claire Celsi for blocking several people, including some constituents, from following her on Twitter.

The lawsuit alleges Celsi, a Democrat who represents portions of Des Moines, West Des Moines and Warren County in the Iowa Senate, violated the free speech clause of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment and the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment "because the comment section of her Twitter account is a designated public forum within which the state may not discriminate against speakers based on their viewpoint."

Celsi told the Register Wednesday that she is accessible to her constituents by phone and email and through her Senate Facebook page. She said she's gone back and forth with it but does not think she was wrong to block people from following her Twitter account, which she considers personal.

"My answer is no, I don’t," Celsi said.

The Iowa Libertarian Party and Thomas Halterman, a constituent of Celsi's, filed the suit Tuesday in federal court. According to the lawsuit, Celsi has blocked "numerous constituents, Iowa residents, members of the Iowa Libertarian Party and out of state U.S. citizens from following her Twitter account."

The plaintiffs are asking a judge to prohibit Celsi from blocking Halterman and denying other users access to her Twitter page, and to declare that her actions violated the Constitution. Celsi has not filed a response to the lawsuit in court.

The lawsuit against Celsi follows a federal appeals court decision earlier this month that President Donald Trump engaged in unconstitutional "viewpoint discrimination" by blocking critics on Twitter. In that case, the court did not take a stance on banning users from a private account or say whether the First Amendment governs speech on social media platforms, but instead said Trump was wrong to block users who disagreed with him since he uses his account for "official purposes."

"The First Amendment does not permit a public official who utilizes a social media account for all manner of official purposes to exclude persons from an otherwise‐open online dialogue because they expressed views with which the official disagrees," Judge Barrington Parker wrote in the Trump case.

Celsi said she believes she has the right to a personal Twitter account and Facebook page, but acknowledges that she "was mixing personal and business together."

"That was my personal account and I basically mixed personal, Senate, just national political commentary and everything all on that page," she said.

On July 19, Celsi began posting from a new Twitter account, listing her biography as "State Senator, Iowa District 21." A tweet from that account says "This is the official Twitter account of Iowa Senator Claire Celsi" and provides contact information for constituents to get in touch. She also made her old account private, meaning only people she approves can view her posts from that account.

"They’re not entitled to follow my personal account. That’s the decision that I’ve made. So that’s why I’ve started the new account," she said.

Celsi said she considered making a more official Twitter account during the legislative session this spring "but I just never got around to it."

Celsi said she considers her Senate Facebook page to be "kind of my official channel of communication" with her constituents. She said she is open and transparent with constituents and replies to phone and email messages.

Jules Ofenbakh, an attorney for the plaintiffs and the Libertarian Party's 2018 candidate for Iowa secretary of state, said Wednesday that Celsi used her account for public business.

"She used it as her official Twitter account in a government capacity, so blocking Iowans and not providing them with an ability to communicate with her and just simply marking them as trolls is not something a government official should do," Ofenbakh said.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.​​​​​​​