Moms for Liberty CA Chapter Sues County Library for Censorship After Officials Shutdown Event
Attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the Institute for Free Speech (IFS) have filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Sacramento, California against two Yolo County library district officials, alleging they violated the First Amendment rights of several women's groups who met in a branch library to discuss the harms of allowing biological men to participate in women's sports.
Moms for Liberty–Yolo County chapter, Independent Council on Women's Sports, California Family Council (CFC), along with several parental rights and women's advocates are challenging library officials for ousting them from a public building during an event hosted by Moms for Liberty. Library officials shut down the forum after only a few minutes, claiming that referring to male athletes in women's sports as "men" violates library policy, the ADF said.
"Shutting down a presentation over disagreements is unconstitutional and, sadly, a growing trend among activists pushing ideologies that erase women and harm children. Fortunately, the First Amendment stands as a bulwark against such censorship," ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer said in a statement.
"Women have the right to speak out about their concerns regarding men participating in their sports. Yolo County Library employees hid behind their subjective policies to silence speech they disliked. We urge the court to uphold the constitutionally protected freedom of our clients to safely advocate on behalf of women's rights without harassment or threats of punishment."
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On Aug. 20 of last year, the Yolo County chapter of Moms for Liberty hosted an event called "Forum for Fair and Safe Sport for Girls" in the Blanchard Community Room at the Mary L. Stephens–Davis Branch Library in Yolo County. The event featured several speakers, including Sophia Lorey, the outreach director for the CFC and a former collegiate athlete. A few minutes into Lorey's speech about men participating in women's sports, protestors began to interrupt her, shouting her down and accusing her of "misgendering."
As Lorey tried to continue her speech, the library's regional manager told her that if she continued to refer to male athletes as men, she would have to leave the room, and he would shut the event down.
As a result, Lorey stopped her speech, and three minutes into the next speech, the regional manager told everyone to leave and turned off the projector to prevent the event from continuing. Organizers and attendees of the forum eventually left, unable to continue the planned event, according to the ADF.
"Of all government officials, librarians—people entrusted with disseminating a broad range of perspectives and voices—should be expected to understand this much. But Yolo County librarians Defendants Scott Love and Diana Lopez believe that their job is to enforce conformity with the government's official views. They not only allow their ideological allies to disrupt speakers whose views they reject, they actively censor speech with which they disagree," the 21-page complaint said.
"The government should not be shutting down free speech," Lorey wrote in a blog on the CFC's website.
She also posted to the social media platform X about the Aug. 20 incident and included a video of the interruption of her address and being asked to leave by library officials.
"Today I was invited to share my personal story of being a college athlete. I was shocked by what happened," Lorey wrote.
"I stated, 'Current 10-year-old girls cannot live out the same dream {I had} as long as men are allowed to compete in women's sports. So now no matter how hard girls work…' And then I was cut off and told by the librarian I would be removed, so then I continued talking saying 'biological girls' and 'biological men' to finish sharing my story. The librarian then told me to leave and if I won't leave he will shut the entire meeting down," she recalled.
"The librarian then again told me to leave so I directly said why am I being asked to leave and he told me, 'Because you are misgendering, you were talking about men in women sports,'" she continued.
Today I was invited to share my personal storing of being a college athlete.
— Sophia Lorey (@SophiaSLorey) August 21, 2023
I was shocked by what happened.
I stated “Current 10 year old girls cannot live out the same dream [I had] as long as men are allowed to compete in womens sports. So now no matter how hard girls… https://t.co/uqTfdUteeN
The lawsuit explains that Moms for Liberty has faced resistance from the library multiple times. According to the ADF, library employees described Moms for Liberty events as "deeply disturbing" and looked for ways to enforce policies to make it difficult for the group to reserve rooms. Library employees displayed "LGBTQIA-affirming materials" during these events, asked a group that hosted a "drag queen story hour" to hold more "queer-affirming events" at the library, and openly encouraged protestors to attend Moms for Liberty gatherings.
At the event on Aug. 20, the regional manager invited protestors outside the library into the room and told an attendee he hoped more people would enter so that the room would exceed its capacity which would require the fire marshal to shut down the event, the ADF said.
"Americans have the right to speak on matters of public concern without fear that government employees will censor them for doing so," explained Institute for Free Speech Vice President for Litigation Alan Gura. "Yolo County officials encouraged their ideological allies to disrupt speakers whose opinions they reject, and they actively censor speech that doesn't match their own views. We expect this case will reaffirm every American's First Amendment right to freely share ideas in public spaces."
Alleging violations of the plaintiff's First Amendment and due process rights under the Constitution, the lawsuit asks the court for several changes to current library policy, including the provision that prohibits "interfering in any way with library services" on the basis that speech would require security, and allow them as a group to continue to meet in the library.
In addition, the plaintiffs are asking the court for compensatory damages to reimburse them for the expenses they incurred in organizing and hosting the August 20 forum, along with attorneys fees, and court costs.
ADF and IFS attorneys filed Moms for Liberty-Yolo County v. Lopez with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Sacramento Division.
CBN News has reached out to Yolo County for a comment. We will post it here if we hear back.
