Llano County settles librarian's wrongful termination suit over book removals for $225,000

Yahoo

28-03-2025

Former librarian Suzette Baker will receive $225,000 in a settlement of her wrongful termination lawsuit against Llano County, according to an agreement shared with the American-Statesman.
The settlement, which will be paid by the Texas Association of Counties, marks the end of a yearlong legal battle between Baker and Llano County officials. The 58-year-old accused them of firing her in 2022 because she refused to pull library materials that a group of conservative activists had deemed inappropriate for children. Several of the books focused on race and LGBTQ+ experiences, including "They Called Us the KKK: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group" and "Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen." The targeted titles were chosen from a list compiled in 2021 by former state Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth.
Baker also accused county officials of suppressing her First Amendment rights by barring her and other librarians from attending public Library Advisory Board meetings during their personal and vacation time.
Baker, a veteran and mom of five adult kids, has worked as a cashier at a hardware store for more than a year. While relieved the lawsuit is over, she isn't celebrating.
"It's saddening that it had to come to this," she said in a phone interview with the Statesman. "But I hope it's enough to make the county stop and pay attention to the citizens and their rights and the people who know what they're doing in the libraries."
Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham said the county "wholly denies" Baker's claims and was "prepared to prove it in court," he told the Statesman in a statement Friday. The Texas Association of Counties resolved the case to avoid the expense of a trial or other continuing litigation, which would have exceeded the settlement amount, he added.
Cunningham also said the suit's resolution will allow the county to concentrate on everyday business, including "emergency services, maintaining our county road system, and offering vital rural health care to our citizens.'
Under the terms of the agreement, Baker will never again work as a librarian in the Texas Hill Country county of Llano, roughly 80 miles northwest of Austin. She also cannot apply to or work in any other Llano County job.
"I would love to be a librarian again. I wanted to be a librarian, and (the county) took that away from me," Baker said. But "that's not to say that I couldn't go someplace else and do it."
More: Texas county challenges First Amendment ruling on library book bans in 5th Circuit hearing
The $225,000 lump sum includes Baker's attorney's fees and all other damages, fees and costs. It could account for the expected gap between the $35,500 annual salary Baker earned as a librarian and what she has made and can expect to make in other jobs.
It sends the "loud and clear" message that 'if government officials are going to trample all over their community's constitutional and civil rights, there will be financial consequences," said Iris Halpern, Baker's attorney.
As part of the settlement, Baker agreed to drop all claims against the defendants in the lawsuit, who include Cunningham, county Commissioner Jerry Don Moss, Library Director Amber Milum and four women who pushed for the book removals and were later appointed to the county's Library Advisory Board.
News of the book removal campaign and the resulting litigation have drawn national attention to Llano.
Outside of Baker's lawsuit, the county is still waiting on a decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a First Amendment lawsuit over the book removals.
A group of Llano County library patrons sued the county in April 2022, arguing that it violated a precedent barring government officials and librarians in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana from removing books 'simply because they dislike the ideas within them.' An Austin federal district judge partly ruled in their favor before the county appealed that decision.
Led by attorney Jonathan Mitchell, the county has argued that the precedent lets federal courts meddle too much in local public libraries' book purchases and removals. Mitchell has also argued that those county curation decisions are 'government speech, immune from First Amendment scrutiny.'
While the case is pending, officials have frozen book purchases for the county's three public libraries. According to Mitchell, a former Texas solicitor general who represented President Donald Trump in a case over Colorado ballot eligibility, the dispute could eventually make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
More: How a national dispute over library books is fracturing a small Texas town
In August, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman found that Baker had plausible claims for First Amendment retaliation, wrongful termination and employment discrimination in an order denying the county's motion to dismiss the case. The ruling made clear that officials would have to settle or take the matter to trial.
Baker's lawsuit was seeking back pay, attorney's fees and an injunction ordering the county to cease behavior that discriminates against minorities and suppresses residents' First Amendment rights.
As their defense against the lawsuit, the county's lawyers argued that Baker was fired for setting up a display about the "highly charged and emotional issue" of censorship in the library and posting on the library's social media account against orders from higher-ups, according to court filings. They also argued Baker did not have sufficient evidence to prove Llano County officials had unconstitutional or discriminatory motivations for their actions.
The settlement was first announced in early March, days before a documentary film about Baker's story was featured at the South by Southwest festival in Austin.
Cunningham said county officials are "glad to put this behind us and focus our energy on the important government services that Llano County provides."
Baker, for her part, said the payout proves "there is legal recourse if we stand up for the rights of the citizens in this state. There is protection for the librarians in this state."
However, she sees a long road ahead for those who oppose restrictions on library books.
"The war is on," she said. "But we won this battle."
More: A conservative nonprofit got $80k for a Texas book-ban battle. Llano County hasn't seen it
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas county settles fired librarian's lawsuit for $225,000