CNN
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Republican Maine state lawmaker Laurel Libby is asking the US Supreme Court to ensure her votes are counted in the next legislative session of the Maine House after she was censured for expressing opposition to transgender athletes competing in girls sports, according to a copy of the emergency application obtained by CNN.
Libby’s attorneys filed to the high court on Monday seeking emergency relief after the lawmaker was censured in March by the Democratic-controlled statehouse for posting on X about transgender girls competing in girls’ sports in the state.
Libby is an outspoken critic on the issue of allowing transgender athletes to participate in girls’ sports. She made an appearance recently at a press conference Attorney General Pam Bondi held to announce that the Justice Department sued the State of Maine for refusing to comply with President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender athletes in high school sports.
In addition to a verbal censure, Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau barred Libby from speaking or voting until she recants. Her lawyers argue this has disenfranchised her thousands of constituents.
“The member’s vote is not her own; it belongs to her district. And depriving an entire district of representation is no more constitutional than excluding that district from a redistricting plan in the first place,” Libby’s attorneys wrote in the appeal.
Libby’s post on X, which received national attention, included the names of students and photographs of the athletes she was criticizing. She insists the goal of her post was to draw attention to a Maine high school girls’ indoor track and field championship, where a transgender girl, who competed as a boy the year prior, won the championship in girls’ pole vault.
Her team is asking for a response from the Supreme Court by May 6, which is when the Maine House will convene for another floor session. Libby is currently the only member of the Maine House who will be unable to vote.
“That refusal to count a duly elected legislator’s vote is unprecedented in Maine. Only three other legislators have been censured in Maine’s 200-year history; no other legislator has had his or her vote not counted as punishment, let alone for the rest of his or her elected term,” the application said.
Libby’s application has already been denied in the lower court and the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals.
