Librart responds to lawsuit ruling

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To the editor:

The Jackson County Public Library has released a statement in response to a federal judge ruling in favor of a patron that received a lifetime ban from a poem he wrote and left at the library that criticized former President Donald Trump.

“Jackson County Public Library will continue to protect its customers, materials and staff members in the wake of a March 31, 2022, ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana,” said the statement reads.

“Chief Judge Tanya Walton Pratt’s ruling in a lawsuit involving the library affirmed the organization’s standing as a limited public forum, which ensures that the Jackson County Public Library can continue to enforce its procedures and policies regarding unruly behavior and damage to library materials and property.

Also, since the filing of the lawsuit in April 2021, the library has taken steps to modify and improve procedures regarding behavior at its facilities including the abuse of property and materials. The purpose of those procedures – including an existing policy for appealing a suspension of library privileges – is to protect staff, customers and materials.”

“The library will continue to monitor behavior and damage to property as it always has – with an eye toward protecting our customers, our materials, our property and our staff,” Library Director Julia Aker said. “The staff and taxpayers deserve no less.”

The Jackson County Public Library took action in this matter out of a concern for the safety of its employees and its customers with the intention of preventing unruly behavior, disturbance of other customers and damage to materials and other library property. The court ruled in that case that the library violated a customer’s First Amendment free speech rights, despite the library’s expressed concerns for the customer’s conduct. It also ruled the customer’s 14th Amendment due process rights were violated as a result of the suspension, although the library asserted that it had earlier made the customer aware of a process for appealing a ban from the library.

“Permanently banning customers from the library is not in the best interest of the library or anyone,” Aker said. “We have long had a process in place for reinstating suspended privileges. We want the public using the library and our services.”

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