Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau of Biddeford is gaining some national attention after the United States Supreme Court ruled yesterday in favor of Republican lawmaker Laurel Libby who said he violated her Constitutional rights.
The case began in February after Libby (R-Auburn) posted a photo of a transgender athlete from Greely High School who won the girls’ pole vault competition. Libby’s post included a photo of the student and first-name identification in quotation marks and set off a heated debate across the state, divided mostly along partisan lines.
Fecteau, a Democrat, is the first openly gay person to serve as House speaker and has long been a champion of LGBTQ+ rights.
Fecteau censured Libby for her behavior, criticizing her post and subsequent comments identifying the student. The censure prevented Libby from speaking or voting on the House floor.
The Democratically-controlled House of Representatives found that Libby’s post violated its code of ethics by putting the student at risk.
Fecteau said he would lift the censure if Libby simply apologized for the post.
Libby ultimately filed an “emergency appeal” with the nation’s highest court. She previously sued Fecteau and the House clerk in lower courts.
Many Republicans across Maine celebrated the Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision to restore Libby’s voting rights as the first session of Maine’s Legislature begins to wind down.
Fecteau was unavailable for comment on Wednesday morning, but did issue a statement to the Gazette.
“Representative Libby’s ability to vote on the floor of the House has been restored until the current appeal process runs its course,” Fecteau said in his statement. “The Clerk of the House, whom the injunction is against, has already complied with this court ruling. We look forward to continuing with the important work Maine people expect of us.”
But not all Democrats were disappointed by the high court’s decision. Former Democratic lawmaker Cynthia Dill, an attorney from Cape Elizabeth, took to social media Tuesday evening and proclaimed that the Court’s decision was a validation of girls’ rights.
And former Republican lawmaker Joyce Maker from Calais expressed disappointment about the Court’s decision on her Facebook page.
In Maine and across the nation, polling shows that many people –– regardless of political affiliation — are uncomfortable with the issue of transgender participation in high school sports.
“This is a victory not just for my constituents, but for the Constitution itself,” Libby told WMTW-TV. “The Supreme Court has affirmed what should never have been in question — that no state legislature has the power to silence an elected official simply for speaking truthfully about issues that matter.”
Libby said she is still not allowed to speak on the House floor. “We do have a bit of a long road, still,” Libby told WMTW.
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