Maine House speaker can't stop lawmaker from voting while federal case is pending, Supreme Court says
The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted Maine state Rep. Laurel Libby's emergency request to block her censure over a social media post critical of a transgender athlete's recent state title win. File Photo by Leigh Vogel/UPI | License Photo
May 20 (UPI) -- Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau can't stop Rep. Laurel Libby from participating in committee and floor votes while challenging her censure, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.
Libby sought emergency relief to enable her participation in Maine House votes while her federal case is decided by the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
The court granted Libby's request without citing the majority's reasoning due to the request being an emergency application.
"The U.S. Supreme Court just restored the voice of 9,000 Mainers!" Libby, R-Auburn, said Tuesday afternoon in a post on X.
"After 2+ months of being silenced for speaking up for Mainegirls, I can once again vote on behalf of the people of House District 90," she said. "This is a win for free speech -- and the Constitution."
Fecteau, D-Biddeford, and other Maine House members censured Libby for challenging a transgender student athlete's participation in girls' sports and using that person's so-called "dead name" in a social media post that she made on Feb. 17.
The athlete won the state's girls' pole vault championship but competed as a boy a year earlier.
The censure stops Libby from speaking on the House floor or participating in floor votes until she apologizes for the social media post.
Libby challenged her censure in federal court and said it violates her constitutional rights while depriving her constituents of representation.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in a five-page dissenting opinion said Libby has a good chance of winning her case but the court usually refuses to intervene in such cases.
"Relief of this sort 'is not a matter of right but of discretion sparingly exercised,'" Jackson said.
"We have long recognized that this injunctive relief is appropriate only when 'critical and exigent circumstances' exist necessitating intervention," she continued.
"Applicants have not asserted that there are any significant legislative votes scheduled in the upcoming weeks, that there are any upcoming votes in which Libby's participation would impact the outcome."
Oral arguments are scheduled "in a few weeks" at the federal appellate court that is located in Boston, Jackson added.
"The opinions are legion in which individual justices ... declined to intervene," Jackson said. "Those days are no more."
Justice Sonia Sotomayor also dissented, while Justice Elena Kagan refused to intervene in the matter.
Libby has criticized Maine's policy of allowing transgender athletes to participate in sports based on gender identity.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills recently rejected a federal court ruling affirming that Title IX prevents athletes from competing in sports based on gender identity.
President Donald Trump promised to hold Mills and the state accountable for Title IX violations.
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