The conservative TV commentator Tomi Lahren has filed suit against Glenn Beck and his online platform, The Blaze, alleging wrongful termination.
Lahren was ousted from her show on The Blaze after she said she was in favor of abortion rights while appearing on ABC’s The View on 17 March.
As recently as September, Beck told the Guardian Lahren “speaks her mind and is fearless”.
“At this point in history people are looking for people that say what they believe, regardless of the consequences,” he added.
In her appearance on ABC, Lahren said she supported abortion rights as “someone that loves the constitution. I’m someone that’s for limited government. So I can’t sit here and be a hypocrite and say I’m for limited government but I think the government should decide what women do with their bodies.
“I can sit here and say that, as a Republican and I can say, ‘You know what, I’m for limited government, so stay out of my guns, and you can stay out of my body as well.’”
In the 27-page lawsuit filed on Friday in Dallas, Lahren’s attorney said nothing in his client’s employment contract prohibited her comments.
After her comments on ABC, The Blaze took Lahren off camera but offered to pay her contract if she remained silent on social media.
Since then, attorney Brian Lauten said in the suit, Beck and others at The Blaze have “embarked on a public smear campaign” and interfered with Lahren’s business relationships.
The lawsuit asks a judge to rescind Lahren’s employment contract and declare that she may speak her mind freely.
Lahren, 24, is a former student journalist at the University of Nevada Las Vegas who rose to prominence on the One America News Network, a conservative outlet, with criticism of Barack Obama’s response to a shooting at a military recruitment center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July 2015.
At The Blaze, she achieved notoriety with support for Donald Trump during the presidential campaign, with controversial criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement and with criticism of protests staged before NFL games in support of that movement by the San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Her appearance and strident rightwing views led some opponents to label her “White Power Barbie”.
In an interview with the Guardian in September, Lahren discussed her determination to express her views regardless of party orthodoxy.
“I fully acknowledge that I am not a journalist,” she said. “I clearly have a point of view, I am very passionate about my point of view. I am a commentator.”
She added: “I do not bullshit, I am genuine and authentic. I don’t say these things to go viral or to be controversial, but I say things that a lot of people wish they could say but are fearful of saying.”
On Friday, she used Twitter to indicate her determination to pursue the suit against The Blaze, writing: “Lay down and play dead really isn’t my style. #FinalThoughts.”
Representatives for The Blaze did not immediately respond to questions.
