Library Director’s Refusal to Relocate Books Not Protected by First Amendment, Brewer Says

Kaitlin Housler
Clint Brewer, Rutherford County Library

Clint Brewer, Founder and Managing Partner of PR firm Imperium Public Strategies, says Rutherford County Library System Director Luanne James’ refusal to follow a directive from the library board to relocate books from the children’s sections to adult areas is not protected by the First Amendment.

Earlier this month, the Rutherford County Library Board voted to direct that more than 130 books – many of which deal with gender identity and LGBTQ-related topics – be moved from children’s sections to adult areas.

James declined to carry out the directive, arguing in a letter to board members that doing so would violate First Amendment protections and constitute “viewpoint discrimination.”

Her refusal has prompted the board to consider disciplinary action, including possible termination, at a public meeting scheduled for March 30.

During Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Brewer challenged the argument that library organization decisions constitute protected speech, framing the dispute as a matter of workplace authority rather than a violation of free speech protections.

“Is the sectioning of books in the application of the Dewey Decimal system an expression of the First Amendment?” Brewer asked. “Is the makeup of a library, the personal First Amendment expression of the curator?”

Brewer argued that such decisions fall within the authority of the governing board, not the personal discretion of a public employee. He pointed to his own experience in media to illustrate that being directed by leadership does not amount to a constitutional violation.

“I was a media executive, publisher, editor, reporter for a long time, and I worked for entities. I owned a few of my own, but I generally had an owner or a company that owned the publications I worked for, and I always had broad latitude to report on what I wanted, to say what I wanted, even on the editorial pages,” Brewer explained.

“I even had relationships with newspaper owners where I sometimes told them no about the editorial page…what you want me to do is a bad idea. Sometimes I was just told what to do…and that wasn’t an infringement upon my First Amendment rights. It was me doing what I was asked to do as an employee. Anybody in a media company who tells you that hasn’t happened to them as an employee is lying,” he added.

Brewer emphasized that while the First Amendment protects an individual’s ability to speak, it does not guarantee a platform or audience.

“First Amendment rights guarantee your right to speech within certain confines… What they don’t guarantee you is platform… You are not entitled to platform or audience,” Brewer said.

Watch:

– – –

Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.

 

 

Related posts

Comments