A Republican state lawmaker is requesting that her appeal of a lawsuit against the House Speaker of Maine be dismissed by a federal court.
Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, had been accused by Auburn Representative Laurel Libby of violating her right to free expression by preventing her from voting or speaking on the House floor. Since House Democrats voted in February to censure Libby for Facebook remarks that they claimed could jeopardize the welfare of a transgender high school athlete and went against the chamber’s code of ethics, Fecteau has been enforcing the limitations on her.
Libby’s voting rights were later reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the prohibitions on speaking and voting were not formally lifted by House legislators until late last month, in the dying minutes of the 2025 legislative session.
Last Monday, the Maine Attorney General’s Office proposed that since Libby was no longer subject to limitations, her claim was now irrelevant. Additionally, Patrick Strawbridge, Libby’s lawyer, requested on Monday that the appeal be dismissed by the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.
When lawmakers return next year, Strawbridge wrote in his letter to the court, Fecteau made it plain through the AG’s office that he would overturn any attempt to reimpose the penalty on Libby for the same code of ethics breach. Meanwhile, Libby proclaimed herself “vindicated.”
“I believe this case sends a clear message: elected officials do not surrender their constitutional rights at the Capitol steps and neither do the people who sent them there,” Libby stated in a press release.
A well-known conservative and active fundraiser, Libby is sometimes cited as a possible contender for higher office, including the Maine gubernatorial election in 2026. By sharing images and the name of a transgender athlete who won a girls’ high school track title on Facebook, she contributed to bringing Maine into the national spotlight and the discussion surrounding transgender athletics. Days after the post went viral, President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from Maine unless transgender athletes were prohibited from participating in women’s and girls’ sports. In response, Democrat Mills said, “See you in court.”
In their censure resolution, Democrats in the Maine House reacted by accusing Libby of egregious and politically driven behavior that could jeopardize the young athlete’s welfare. During the following four months of the legislative session, the issue turned into a partisan hot spot, and Democrats also turned down many Republican proposals to amend Maine’s law permitting transgender athletes to compete in sports according to their gender identity.
Democrats also made it clear that the decision does not “absolve the representative’s actions” and that the censure is still in effect, even as they voted to remove Libby’s restrictions in the closing hours of the session.
Libby declined to issue an apology for her first posts or for drawing attention to a rule that she believes disadvantages female athletes.
