Maine Rep. Libby Appeals to the Supreme Court in Dispute Over Trans Athletes

Maine Rep. Laurel Libby has appealed her censure to the Supreme Court, arguing that Maine’s legislature is silencing her and also her constituents by not allowing her to vote.

🚨 BREAKING: Rep. Laurel Libby files an emergency petition to the U.S. Supreme Court to restore the voice of House District 90 — and defend constitutional rights. 🇺🇸

My constituents have been silenced for 60+ days. Now the fight moves to SCOTUS. 📢

Details 👇 pic.twitter.com/tLIEsvEuUh

— Rep. Laurel Libby (@laurel_libby) April 28, 2025

If you don’t know what all this is about it’s part of a story that has been brewing for two months involving the Trump administration, the state of Maine and trans athletes. I wrote about this story last month and since then there have been several developments. Briefly, here’s the backstory.

On Feb. 5, President Trump signed an executive order intended to keep biological men out of women’s sports. Just a few weeks later, Rep. Laurel Libby posted a thread on X about a trans athlete in Maine who won the girl’s pole vaulting championship for the state after competing as a boy the previous year (where he came in 5th place).

Meet John, who now goes by Katie.

John won the girl’s pole-vaulting state championship in Maine, after the state deliberately ignored current federal rules and allowed him to compete. pic.twitter.com/aROUERYdR5

— Rep. Laurel Libby (@laurel_libby) February 18, 2025

She posted something similar on Facebook. And these posts allegedly resulted in threats being directed at this student, though obviously Rep. Libby didn’t invite anyone to do that or even give his last name. But by this point the issue had become highly political. Maine’s governor Janet Mills made a point of saying she would not comply with Trump’s executive order, telling Trump she would see him in court.

On Feb. 25th, the Maine House censured Rep. Libby, announcing she would not be allowed to speak on the floor or vote until she apologized for her social media posts. 

Libby can regain her power to speak and vote if she apologizes, but she says she doesn’t plan to.

“I will not apologize for speaking up for Maine girls who are having their voices silenced,” Libby said…

Libby was censured in a 75-70 vote, with Democrats holding the majority. Unless she apologizes, Libby won’t be able to vote, which means one less voice for House Republicans.

This was ostensibly about the threats directed at the trans athlete but it was arguably also about Democrats siding with the governor against the Trump administration. In March, Rep. Libby filed a lawsuit arguing that the House was violating her right to free speech. But a judge in Rhode Island ruled against her, leaving the demand that she apologize in place.

Libby filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, but all federal judges in the state recused themselves from the case, which was then referred to the District of Rhode Island.

U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose, of the District of Rhode Island, denied Libby’s motion for a preliminary injunction on Friday. In her ruling, DuBose said the censure and sanctions against Libby are an internal Maine House affair and can stay in place until she apologizes for the Facebook post.

Rep. Libby then appealed to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals and last Friday that court also ruled against her.

A panel of federal appellate judges has denied Rep. Laurel Libby’s motion for an emergency injunction pending appeal.

That court order was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit in Boston on Friday, April 25…

The latest order means the current censure still stands and Libby cannot speak or vote on the House floor unless she apologizes for posting a photo of a transgender student athlete on social media, which she says she will not do.

And that brings us back to her decision today to appeal this all the way to the Supreme Court. Of course there’s no guarantee that the court will agree to take this up but the possibility that they might is worrying some observers. An op-ed published today in the Portland Press Herald suggests this could be bad news for Democrats whether they win or lose the case.

Maine House Democrats made a mistake by censuring Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn. It is not only playing right into her desire for national attention and has greatly aided her fundraising ability, it is disenfranchising her constituents…

Rep. Libby has gone to federal court to overturn the decision of Maine House Democrats. If Rep. Libby ultimately loses her case, Democrats may come to realize winning was a pyrrhic victory.  Assume the matter goes to the U.S. Supreme Court and the Democrats win. That will serve as a legal precedent that state legislatures everywhere can censure or expel members as the legislature “deems appropriate,” including for exercising their First Amendment rights.

If Maine Dems win then every red state legislature can follow this same playbook. If you say something the majority doesn’t like, you can be silenced and have your vote taken away until you apologize. My guess is we’d be hearing a lot more about this case in the national media if Rep. Libby were a Democrat who’d been silenced over her stance on abortion. But something like that may be coming if Maine wins this case. These Democratic state legislators will own the precedent.

The other possible outcome is that Rep. Libby wins the case and the Democratic legislature and all of the judges that went along with this are embarrassed. That’s not a great outcome for them either. The op-ed suggests it would be better for Democrats in the legislature to back down now rather than get slapped down later.

It seems clear that the House has some latitude in what discipline it chooses to employ. It has chosen censure, but there is nothing to prevent it from now revising its discipline to a reprimand, an action that Rep. Libby fully deserves, or simply ending the censure now that the House has made clear its disapproval of Rep. Libby’s despicable action in exposing a high school student to potential abuse and intimidation…

Democrats would do well to lower the heat by revising their discipline of Rep. Libby and avoid giving legislatures in red (or blue) states a legal basis for punishing their members for speech they don’t like.

As you can see in the press release up top, Rep. Libby is asking for a swift intervention by SCOTUS, preferably before she misses a bunch of special session votes next week. So we may not have to wait long to see if the Court weighs in or the Maine legislature blinks.