Supreme Court orders Maine legislature to revoke censure of Rep. Laurel Libby over trans athlete post

The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Maine state legislature to revoke its censure of GOP state representative Laurel Libby on Tuesday. 

Libby has been censured since Feb. 15 for a social media post that identified a transgender Maine high school athlete who won a girls' pole vault competition. Democrat majority leader and Maine Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau told Libby that the censure would be revoked if she apologized for the social media post, but Libby has firmly refused. 

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FILE -State Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, speaks with a colleague, Feb. 14, 2023, at the State House in Augusta, Maine.  (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

Instead, the state representative filed a lawsuit to have the censure overturned, but was ruled against by Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Melissa DuBose, who was appointed by former President Biden in January. DuBose presided over the case after every district judge in Maine refused to take the case. 

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Libby then filed an appeal to First Circuit Court of Appeals, but was ruled against there too. So she took her case to the Supreme Court in April. 

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State Rep Laurel Libby (Fox News)

Libby had the support of the U.S. Department of Justice and Attorney General Pam Bondi, who filed an amicus brief supporting Libby in her lawsuit, and Bondi has personally spoken out in support of the embattled Republican state representative. 

"The Department of Justice is proud to fight for girls in Maine and stand alongside Rep. Libby, who is being attacked simply for defending girls in her home state.  As our lawsuit against the state of Maine illustrates, we will always protect girls’ sports and girls’ spaces from radical gender ideology," Bondi told Fox News Digital. 

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