Miss North Carolina USA Winner Sues Miss USA for Defamation

Brittany Boltinhouse is taking Miss USA to court ... claiming she was stripped of her Miss North Carolina USA crown over her conservative politics -- then publicly smeared as a racist and bigot.

According to a lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, Brittany is suing the Miss USA Organization, CEO Thom Brodeur and the operators of the Miss North Carolina USA pageant for defamation and civil conspiracy.

The filing opened with lyrics from "Heated" by Beyoncé ... "Whole lotta, yeah, money, not a lot of patience. Whole lotta n***** been waiting. They want some time on it, now I wanna flaunt it. Panty and a bra, we can get involved, boy…"

Her attorney, Patrick Mincey, says the case isn't about whether pageant officials had the power to dethrone Brittany ... it's about what she claims they did afterward.

Mincey says Brittany was falsely branded a racist, homophobe and transphobe -- and claims the evidence will show her crown was really taken because of her support for Donald Trump and Charlie Kirk ... along with her criticism of President Biden's "Transgender Day of Visibility."

Brittany makes the same argument in the lawsuit ... claiming pageant officials used old social media posts as cover for the real reason they wanted her gone.

The docs also allege Brittany’s paternal, now deceased, great-grandfather -- Antonio Sosa Figueroa -- "ethnically self-identified all his life as a black, Afro Latino Honduran" and an exhibit of his ID is submitted into the filing.

As TMZ previously reported ... Brittany lost her crown earlier this month after old posts from 2017 and 2019 resurfaced showing her repeatedly using the N-word.

In the filing, a screenshot of the posts where Brittany had utilized the N-word was included. According to Brittany's defense, presented in the documents ... "The reason is simple: no one took offense because it was evident in 2017 and 2019 when Brittany wrote those posts as a teenager no offense was intended. Indeed, no offense was caused."

Brittany acknowledges making the posts, but denies she's racist, homophobic or transphobic ... and says the public backlash damaged her reputation and cost her business and professional opportunities.