The U.S. Supreme Court has restored the voting privileges for Republican Maine Rep. Laurel Libby.
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Libby and her six members of her members sued the likes of Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecto and others over the blame, claiming that she had obstructed her work as a lawmaker and violated her members’ rights to vote. The High Court on Tuesday granted a request for a temporary injunction to restore votes while the lawsuit progresses. The court voted 7-2, with liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson in the minority, and the lower courts refused to intervene in the case, citing the doctrine of legislative immunity that protects lawmakers from certain legal action.
“Not too long ago, this court took the cautious step in using fair force to issue injunctive relief at the request of the parties claiming the emergency,” Jackson wrote to her. Opposition. “The opinion is a corps that has revised such demands at the Chamber of Commerce and refused to intervene, reiterating that “such forces should be used sparingly only in most important and urgent situations.” ”
“There are no more those days,” she continued. “Today’s courts will barely suspend to grant these important threshold restrictions in the exercise of their own powers. Instead, they choose to uncorrect any errors that they deem appropriate, even if the applicant’s claim raises a serious legal issue that justifies a thorough assessment by a lower court that has faithfully considered them.”
Libby posted a photo of a trans female athlete on Facebook in February, killing her. Libby frequently condemns the presence of trans girls and women in women’s sports. “It’s fundamentally unfair to allow biological men to compete in women’s sports, but that’s what’s happening in Maine,” she wrote in a Facebook post. She also praised Donald Trump’s executive order, threatening to receive federal funds from any state that allows trans girls and women to compete with cis women in school sports.
A few days after she posted a photo of the athlete, the main house voted 75-70 to denounce Libby. This meant that she could not vote or speak on the floor of the house unless she apologised.
Libby defended her post as free speech, but Democrats said targeting students was wrong. “There’s a time and a place for policy debate,” said Fecteau, a gay Democrat, at the time. “That time and place won’t be a social media post attacking Maine students. Maine kids and all Maine people are worth more.” Fecteau said he didn’t ask Libby to deny her beliefs, but he just wanted her to apologize to the girl. He had spoken with Libby earlier and asked her to delete the post, but she refused. It was widely shared and helped to promote a conflict between Trump and Maine Gov. Janet Mills.
At a White House meeting in February, Trump demanded that Mills comply with his executive orders, and she said he would meet him in court. She recently won a settlement with the US Department of Agriculture and recovered funds for school lunches in Maine. The Trump administration is still pursuing other legal measures against Maine.
Libby praised the High Court case in a previous Twitter X post.
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
