PORTLAND, Maine — Attorneys for the state of Maine and a conservative lawmaker who identified a transgender teen student athlete online now agree that the lawmaker’s appeal over her loss of voting rights for her post is now moot.
Republican state Rep. Laurel Libby identified the athlete in a February social media post that went viral and called into question the student’s gender identity, bringing attention to the issue of transgender teens participating in sports. Maine’s Democratic-controlled House of Representatives censured Libby for violating the House code of ethics and blocked her from speaking and voting on the floor.
Libby sued, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May that the Maine legislature must allow her to vote. Lawmakers voted in June to halt the restrictions.
Maine Assistant Attorney General Kimberly Patwardhan said in court papers filed late last month that there are “no longer any restrictions on Rep. Libby’s ability to vote or debate” and “this appeal is now moot.” Libby said in a statement Monday that she will “not contest the AG’s mootness argument” and added that she never provided the apology House Democrats asked of her.
“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 said.
The appeal still needs to be formally dismissed by a court, but it is essentially dropped “given that both parties are in agreement about the mootness issue,” said Danna Hayes, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office.
Libby’s post was about a high school athlete who won a girls’ track competition. She said the student had previously competed in boys’ track. Her post included a photo of the student and first-name identification in quotation marks.
The post preceded a public disagreement between President Donald Trump and Democratic Gov. Janet Mills over the subject of transgender athletes. Trump signed an executive order designed to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports earlier this year. At a meeting of governors at the White House in February, Trump characterized Maine as out of compliance with order.
Mills told Trump: “We’ll see you in court.” The Trump administration then launched investigations into Maine’s Title IX compliance. An attorney for the state said in April that the state and federal government are at an impasse over the subject.
Story by Patrick Whittle, Associated Press
