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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Tuesday that the Democratic-controlled Maine House of Representatives cannot bar a Republican lawmaker from speaking in the chamber or voting as a result of comments she made about a transgender student-athlete.
In a brief order, the high court granted an emergency request from state Rep. Laurel Libby, who faced considerable blowback from a social media post in February after a transgender girl won a pole vault event at this year's state championship.
"This is a win for free speech — and for the Constitution," Libby said Tuesday on X, adding that she had been "silenced for speaking up for Maine girls."
House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, a Democrat, said in a statement that as a result of the decision, "Representative Libby’s ability to vote on the floor of the House has been restored until the current appeal process runs its course."
The Trump administration has offered Libby its support, with the Justice Department filing a brief in a federal appeals court. Litigation will now continue in that court.
Two of the court's liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, disagreed with the outcome. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority.
Libby, a critic of the state's policy to allow transgender athletes to compete in high school sports, posted a photo of the child athlete alongside a photo of the same student competing in the boys' event in a previous year.
The House subsequently censured her.
The issue before the Supreme Court was not the censure but a separate punishment that barred Libby from speaking or voting in the House until she apologized.
As a result, Libby was unable to properly represent her constituents, leaving them without a voice in the Legislature, her lawyers argued. A group of voters joined Libby in filing suit.
They asked the Supreme Court to immediately allow her to participate in the current legislative session, which ends in June, arguing that the punishment violates her constituents' voting rights under the Constitution's 14th Amendment.
Lower courts refused to intervene, saying legislative immunity barred her claims.
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said in court papers that the House's actions constituted a "modest punishment" that merely required an apology, not that Libby recant her views.
In her dissenting opinion, Jackson said she did not think Libby had met the high bar required for the Supreme Court to intervene.
Among other things, Libby and her supporters had not shown that there are important votes coming up or any votes in which her participation was key to the outcomes, Jackson said.
While it is "certainly possible" that Libby would ultimately prevail on her legal arguments, the outcome was "not clear, let alone indisputably so," she added.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Tuesday that the Democratic-controlled Maine House of Representatives cannot bar a Republican lawmaker from speaking in the chamber or voting as a result of comments she made about a transgender student-athlete.
In a brief order, the high court granted an emergency request from state Rep. Laurel Libby, who faced considerable blowback from a social media post in February after a transgender girl won a pole vault event at this year's state championship.
"This is a win for free speech — and for the Constitution," Libby said Tuesday on X, adding that she had been "silenced for speaking up for Maine girls."
House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, a Democrat, said in a statement that as a result of the decision, "Representative Libby’s ability to vote on the floor of the House has been restored until the current appeal process runs its course."
The Trump administration has offered Libby its support, with the Justice Department filing a brief in a federal appeals court. Litigation will now continue in that court.
Two of the court's liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, disagreed with the outcome. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority.
Libby, a critic of the state's policy to allow transgender athletes to compete in high school sports, posted a photo of the child athlete alongside a photo of the same student competing in the boys' event in a previous year.
The House subsequently censured her.
The issue before the Supreme Court was not the censure but a separate punishment that barred Libby from speaking or voting in the House until she apologized.
As a result, Libby was unable to properly represent her constituents, leaving them without a voice in the Legislature, her lawyers argued. A group of voters joined Libby in filing suit.
They asked the Supreme Court to immediately allow her to participate in the current legislative session, which ends in June, arguing that the punishment violates her constituents' voting rights under the Constitution's 14th Amendment.
Lower courts refused to intervene, saying legislative immunity barred her claims.
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said in court papers that the House's actions constituted a "modest punishment" that merely required an apology, not that Libby recant her views.
In her dissenting opinion, Jackson said she did not think Libby had met the high bar required for the Supreme Court to intervene.
Among other things, Libby and her supporters had not shown that there are important votes coming up or any votes in which her participation was key to the outcomes, Jackson said.
While it is "certainly possible" that Libby would ultimately prevail on her legal arguments, the outcome was "not clear, let alone indisputably so," she added.
