Judge won’t give fired library board members their jobs back | A Tammany

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that three members of the St. Tammany Parish library board who sued to get their jobs back after being fired by the council earlier this year were not entitled to immediate reinstatement to their positions.

Former St. Tammany Library Board of Control members William McHugh, Rebecca Taylor and Anthony Parr sued the parish council and St. Tammany Parish Council member David Cougle after they were fired in May. The trio alleged that they were retaliated against for expressing their views on certain library books and refusing to restrict access to them in the community’s public libraries, in violation of their First Amendment rights.

Many of the books in question had sexual themes or contained LGBTQ+ themes and characters.

Controversy has raged around the community’s public library system since June 2022, when some branches put up public displays for Pride Month. Since then, some Northshore residents have argued that the libraries have provided sexually explicit material to children. Others have complained about some books with LGBTQ+ themes.

U.S. District Judge Brandon S. Long in New Orleans said the plaintiffs “failed to bear the burden of persuasion in showing that they are likely to succeed on their First Amendment retaliation and discrimination claims.”

However, his ruling does not end the lawsuit. The hearing, held Tuesday and Wednesday, was not to hear all of the plaintiffs’ claims, but to determine whether it was appropriate for Long to immediately reinstate the plaintiffs to their former positions on the library’s board.

“This case is ongoing,” said Bruce Hamilton, the attorney representing the former library board members.

The council had previously filed an application seeking to restrict the production of some evidence in the case, arguing it was confidential information belonging to the council. After Long said that evidence could be presented, the township appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which is scheduled to hold a hearing on the matter in December.

The Fifth Circuit ordered the lower court to proceed with this week’s preliminary injunction hearing without considering evidence that could arguably be viewed as privileged.

“We fought with two hands tied behind our backs,” Hamilton said. “If this is resolved in our favor, we will have a free hand.”

Assistant District Attorney James Bolner, who represented the township, declined to comment after the hearing. Efforts to reach Cougle immediately after the hearing were unsuccessful.

Almost a dozen witnesses were called during the hearing. Among them were three current council members: Jeff Corbin, Arthur Laughlin and Cougle.

The plaintiffs cited social media posts from the St. Tammany Parish Library Accountability Project, whose co-founder Cougle testified, as well as Cougle’s public comments, to argue that Cougle ran for office to replace the library board in part because of the views that they represented.

Long said, however, that to make their case, the plaintiffs would have to show that the majority of the council, which voted 13-0 in May to approve the resolution to replenish the library board with new members, harbored “retaliatory hostility.” against McHugh, Parr and Taylor. The judge said the plaintiffs had been unable to prove this.

However, Long believed the plaintiffs had presented “strong” evidence of Cougle’s “retaliatory and discriminatory intent.”

He pointed out that the plaintiffs had shown that the St. Tammany Library Accountability Project led a campaign in which the plaintiffs were called “terms such as dog handlers, predators, threats to children and other names.”

No evidence was presented by either side, Long emphasized, that “Mr. Cougle or the Library Accountability Project use such vitriolic language to describe the unpaid volunteer public service these plaintiffs performed.”