This article originally appeared on WND.com
Guest by post by Bob Unruh
‘What happened next was a shocking violation’
A library that fired a Republican woman who encouraged members of her own party to run for specific elected offices has admitted to doing “violence” to the GOP member’s free speech rights.
And, while the firing already had been reversed previously, there’s now a consent order that makes official the disreputable acts of the Dudley-Tucker Library and the town of Raymand, New Hampshire.
The American Center for Law and Justice said it obtained the victory in federal court with the consent order with all the details of the library’s dismissal of Arlene Quaratiello, a GOP member of the state legislature.
It was because of she expressed her “conservative” views.
“As in many states, being a member of the state legislature is only a part-time position, and most state Reps. hold additional jobs. Our client was a librarian at a local library,” the organization reported.
“Rep. Quaratiello sent a letter to a local newspaper, endorsing conservative candidates for a public library position. She endorsed these candidates because they took the ‘controversial’ position that sexually explicit books should not be in the children’s section of the library. What happened next was a shocking violation of the First Amendment,” the report said.
“She was called to meet with Director [Kirsten] Corbett, a library trustee, and the town manager. They told her she was terminated ‘because of [her] lack of separation of personal/political values and agendas from DTL [Dudley-Tucker Library] policies, procedures, and occurrences’ and because she was ‘not able to maintain the separation between personal and library tenets,’” the ACLJ reported.
Quaratiello asked “if this meant that she was terminated for her political activity, and they confirmed it.”
But all of her “political” actions were on her own time, and using her own resources, the report confirmed.
“Eventually, the library restored our client to her job, but not before the library’s constitutional damage was done. They might have thought that doing so would mean they would not face any consequences for their conduct. Arlene went to a number of lawyers, asking them if anything could be done about what happened to her. However, because she had gotten her job back, the other lawyers said there was no case,” the ACLJ said.
It took on the project because her constitutional rights had been violated and there had been “no recognition of wrongdoing.”
“She was understandably concerned that something like this might happen again the next time she spoke out on a political issue – which obviously, as a state representative, she would do. Our lawsuit was about protecting the rights of citizens to speak out about the issues that affect all of us and ensuring a conservative voice can still be heard.”
The court document that is intended to end the dispute confirms that the library and its officials confirmed she had been terminated because “she engaged in off duty, public, expressive, political activity, outside the scope of her employment.”
The library also agreed to state, publicly, “The Dudley-Tucker Library regrets its conduct toward Quaratiello and the violation of plaintiff Quaratiello’s constitutional rights, and will remind, in writing, all personnel to refrain from engaging in disciplinary activity that punishes the First Amendment activities of employees. The Dudley-Tucker Library and Town of Raymond will take any other actions reasonably necessary to ensure this type of constitutional violation does not occur again.”
The library also is required to take other administrative actions to ensure that such violations don’t happen again, such as expunging any negative documents from the incident.
“She now has a court order explaining that her rights were violated and providing her explicit, extensive legal protection in case anything similar happens again,” the ACLJ reported.
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