Fired library director sues Central Arkansas county, alleging retaliation and First Amendment breach
Source: Arkansas Advocate
February 3, 2025 6:20 pm
A Central Arkansas librarian who was fired in 2023 over a dispute with local officials regarding library materials filed a federal lawsuit Monday against the county that fired her.
Saline County Judge Matt Brumley fired county library director Patty Hector in October 2023. The county governing body had given him the power to do so several weeks earlier via an ordinance. Hector was Saline County Library director for seven years, and her firing came after she spent months rebuffing pressure from elected officials to relocate certain books considered inappropriate for minors.
Hectors complaint alleges that the defendants, Brumley and the Saline County Quorum Court, unconstitutionally used their executive and legislative power to retaliate against her.
Hectors termination, and the ordinance ensuring it, was punishment for her opposition to censorship, wrote her attorneys, Jess Askew of the Kutak Rock law firm and John Williams of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas.
Read more: https://arkansasadvocate.com/2025/02/03/fired-library-director-sues-central-arkansas-county-alleging-retaliation-and-first-amendment-breach/
Link to
COMPLAINT (PDF) -
https://arkansasadvocate.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Hector-v.-Brumley-complaint.pdf