A lawsuit has been filed against a local library in New Hampshire after officials there fired a librarian over her “political values” – and the fact that she supported a conservative perspective about public libraries.
The American Center for Law and Justice said its lawsuit is on behalf of Arlene R. Quaratiello, a conservative Republican member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives.
As her work there is part-time, she also had started a full-time job as a librarian at the public facility in Raymond, New Hampshire.
Just months into her employment, several petitions by citizens were filed in the town, both trying to remove the local – and tax-funded – facility from the American Library Association due to that organization’s extreme leftist agenda.
Specifically, the ACLJ reported, those petitions wanted to assure that the children’s room in the library “will be free of any books with content containing nudity, gender identity, sex or sexual references.”
In fact, across America, ALA ideologues have gone to court themselves to insist that that very offensive material remain in libraries and accessible to children.
“We must defend the rights of public employees to speak out on crucial issues affecting our country,” the ACLJ said.
It charges that officials at the Dudley Tucker Library violated Quaratiello’s First Amendment rights.
“It is sad that such a measure would be controversial, but unfortunately, it was,” the ACLJ reported. “The director of the library, Kirsten Corbett, vigorously opposed these petitions and used everything within her power, including library social media accounts, to urge people to defeat these petitions.”
The ACLJ’s client “took a different view of these sorts of issues.”
“She sent an email to the branch of the Republican Party in the town where she lives, Atkinson, New Hampshire, urging conservatives to run for library trustee positions. She also sent a letter to a local newspaper, endorsing conservative candidates for a different public library in Atkinson.”
Shortly after, Corbett summoned her to a meeting and fired her, “because of [her] lack of separation of personal/political values and agendas from DTL policies, procedures, and occurrences.”
They confirmed she was being fired for her political activity.
When she obtained her personnel file, she found that the library managers had been incensed at her advocacy for children.
“That file included the letter she wrote to the newspaper, with the part of the letter they found problematic highlighted: ‘They [the candidates Quaratiello endorsed] also believe in protecting our children from the increasing amount of inappropriate material available both in print and online.’ It is that specific sentence that her employer found upsetting,” the ACLJ said.
The legal team said the library “eventually” restored Quaratiello to her job.
“Perhaps they thought that by doing so, they could avoid any consequences for what they did. They were wrong. Representative Quaratiello is not merely seeking financial remuneration; she is seeking the vindication of her First Amendment rights to speak out about questions of public concern,” the legal team said.
The case “seeks a vindication of the First Amendment rights for herself and all those who, like her, are trying to help protect children from inappropriate and explicit books. These fights are about more than money – they are about proclaiming the rights of citizens to speak out about the issues that affect all of us and ensuring a conservative voice can still be heard.”
This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
This post originally appeared on WND News Center.