Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has confirmed his intention to take legal action against the official Kansas City X (formerly twitter) account, accusing it of "doxing" Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker due to his religious beliefs. But by definition, he wasn't actually "doxed."
Butker has faced significant backlash following his controversial commencement speech at Benedictine College. In response to this, the Kansas City X account posted - and quickly deleted - a message revealing only the city where the 28 year old resides.
The post read: "Just a reminder that Harrison Butker lives in the City of [redacted]." However, his place of residence was already public knowledge, with articles dating back over a year revealing the city and Butker seemingly having no issue with them. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines dox as "to publicly identify or publish private information about (someone) especially as a form of punishment or revenge."
In Butker's case, however, the shared information was not private. Even so, during an appearance on " Outkick the Morning," Bailey announced he was investigating who is behind the Kansas City social media account. "We have demanded certain records from the city related to their management of that social media account that doxed Harrison Butker in retaliation for his free expression of religious beliefs," he stated.
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“Let’s paint this with the proper brush – that is government retaliating against an individual for the expression of their sincerely held religious beliefs. That could not be more of a clear case of a violation of his constitutional freedoms and the Missouri Human Rights Act.”
During Butker's speech, the three-time Super Bowl champion discussed his Catholic faith while embracing several tropes and perceived gender roles widely panned as sexist. Bailey defended the Chiefs player for openly sharing his principles, insisting he broke no laws by doing so.
"At the end of the day, I support his right to free expression of religion," he added. "If you listen to what he said and you actually drill down on the words he used this is a man of Catholic faith, speaking to a Catholic audience at a Catholic university, expressing his sincerely held religious beliefs."
"I'm always going to stand up and fight for athletes or anyone else who wants to express their religious beliefs and are protected by the constitutional law to do so."
Kansas City's official X account received backlash for revealing the city Harrison Butker lives (Nick Tre. Smith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)Addressing the Kansas City social media post from last week, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas described it as "clearly inappropriate."
“A message appeared earlier this evening from a City public account. The message was clearly inappropriate for a public account,” he said. The City has correctly apologized for the error, will review account access, and ensure nothing like it is shared in the future from public channels.”
However, Bailey wasn't satisfied with just an apology, demanding that those responsible for the post be "fired and terminated immediately."
“We’ve demanded certain records and documents in relation to how that account is managed and intend to look into that matter and hold any wrongdoers accountable,” he continued. “I think Harrison Butker himself has a cause of action against the city and I’m deeply concerned that they don’t have sufficient controls in place to prevent government from being weaponized to violate individual rights.”
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