Maine Representative Has Voting, Speaking Rights Restored By Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has stepped in to restore the voting rights of a Maine Republican state lawmaker who was censured and stripped of those rights after she made a controversial Facebook post.

State Rep. Laurel Libby had her speaking and voting rights stripped in February after she posted on Facebook about a transgender athlete winning first place in a girls’ pole vault competition, the New York Post reported.

“We’ve learned that just ONE year ago John was competing in boy’s pole vault… that’s when he had his 5th place finish. So all of this transpired in the last year, with the full blessing of the Maine Principals’ Association,” the representative said.

“Two years ago, John tied for 5th place in boy’s pole vault. Tonight, ‘Katie’ won 1st place in the girls’ Maine State Class B Championship,” she said.

The representative won the case in the Supreme Court with all conservative justices and liberal Justice Elena Kagan siding with the majority, while the two remaining liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented, saying that the case did not require emergency intervention.

“The First Circuit is moving quickly to evaluate the legal issues this case presents, with oral argument scheduled to occur in a few weeks,” Jackson said in the dissent.

“Meanwhile, before us, the applicants have not asserted that there are any significant legislative votes scheduled in the upcoming weeks; that there are any upcoming votes in which Libby’s participation would impact the outcome; or that they will otherwise suffer any concrete, imminent, and significant harm while the lower court considers this matter,” she said.

The representative had her speaking and voting rights stripped because she refused to apologize for the post as part of her censure.

On Tuesday, she took to X to celebrate the Supreme Court decision.

“VICTORY!” she said. “The U.S. Supreme Court just restored the voice of 9,000 Mainers! After 2+ months of being silenced for speaking up for Maine girls, I can once again vote on behalf of the people of House District 90.”

“This is a win for free speech — and for the Constitution,” she said.

Democratic Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said that barring Libby from voting and speaking was a “modest punishment” that was within the statehouse rules.

“Rep. Libby has steadfastly refused to comply with this modest punishment, which is designed to restore the integrity and reputation of the body,” the attorney general said to the court. “Her refusal places her in breach of a centuries-old rule of the Maine House, Rule 401(11), that Rep. Libby previously agreed, along with all of her House colleagues, would govern House proceedings.”

“Rule 401(11) provides that a member found by the body to be in breach of its rules may not participate in floor debates or vote on matters before the full House until they have ‘made satisfaction,’ i.e., here, apologized for their breach,” he said.

This week, President Donald Trump scored a massive victory at the Supreme Court, even getting traditionally liberal justices in his favor.

On Monday, the court lifted a lower court injunction that was preventing the president from stripping the protected legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants currently residing in the United States, Fox News reported.

The decision was 8–1 in favor of what the president wanted, with the only dissent coming from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, whom former President Joe Biden appointed.

“The decision clears the way for the Trump administration to move forward with its plans to terminate Biden-era Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections for roughly 300,000 Venezuelan migrants living in the U.S. and allows the administration to move forward with plans to immediately remove these migrants, which lawyers for the administration argued they should be able to do,” the report said.