Brittany Boltinhouse, the recently dethroned Miss North Carolina USA 2026, filed a defamation lawsuit against the Miss USA Organization, alleging they weaponized her conservative political beliefs to strip her crown.
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The lawsuit, filed Sunday afternoon in Duplin County Superior Court, accuses the organization and its state pageant organizers of branding Boltinhouse as a “racist” and “bigot” in a coordinated cover-up.
The lawsuit names Miss USA CEO Thom Brodeur, JKN Universe, and state pageant operator A Blaize Productions (ABP) as defendants. Boltinhouse claims the pageant orchestrated a global campaign to destroy her reputation, relying on a “false confession.”
“Brittany Boltinhouse was not merely stripped of a title. She was publicly branded with a scarlet letter, accused of some of the most despicable accusations that can be lodged against another person in modern society,” said Patrick M. Mincey, legal counsel for Boltinhouse. “The evidence will show defendants attempted to manufacture Brittany’s false confession and, when they failed to coerce one from her, proceeded to lie in order to gin up an online mob bent on destroying a talented young woman.”
Boltinhouse, 27, was stripped of the 2026 Miss North Carolina USA title on Aug. 5 because of conduct “over an extended period of time” that violated the organization’s standards, according to Brodeur.
According to the lawsuit, ABP and Miss USA officials succumbed to public pressure over Boltinhouse’s conservative social media presence. This included her support for President Donald Trump and conservative activist Charlie Kirk, as well as her criticism of President Biden’s “Transgender Day of Visibility.”
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Key claims in the lawsuit include:
The pageant previously removed Boltinhouse after old social media posts from 2017 and 2019 surfaced in which she repeatedly used the n-word six times as a teenager.
The lawsuit argues that Boltinhouse’s use of the word was a pretext to oust her for her conservative views. The suit also noted that ABP played a song by Beyoncé called “Heated” that also uses the word in the lyrics during Boltinhouse’s fitness walk.
“While defendants enjoy a certain level of discretion to crown and remove titleholders, they cannot remove a titleholder for political reasons and then defame that titleholder to the public to hide their true motivations,” said Stephen Bell, legal counsel for Boltinhouse.
Boltinhouse is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for defamation and civil conspiracy.
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08-23-26 FINAL Boltinhouse Complaint (1) by Kristen Johnson