July 2025 – Settling the Federal Lawsuit

Now that all parties have signed and everything has been filed in federal court, we can finally reveal the exact terms of the settlement reached in the First Amendment case brought by myself and Melanie Brevis against Lafayette Consolidated Government and Robert Judge.

Judge and his handler, Michael Lunsford of Citizens for a New Louisiana, have done their level best to reframe this suit as “lawfare,” claiming that we are persecuting poor Mr. Judge for his Christian beliefs and for his work in protecting children from their mythical tidal wave of “erotica” in the children’s section of the Lafayette Public Library. The truth, which both are absolutely aware of but refuse to address honestly, is that this suit had NOTHING to do with book content, book banning, or any other issue related directly to library business. This suit was about one thing and one thing only – the rights of citizens (Republican, Democrat, or otherwise) to address government representatives at public meetings without fear of arrest or reprisal. Period.

As many of you know, it was a long, difficult fight. After Judge introduced his rules restricting what speakers could say at meetings, including a prohibition on mentioning board members by name, he further attempted to intimidate anyone brave enough to take the podium for public comment by posting armed sheriff’s deputies on either side of the board table. These clearly restrictive rules had one purpose – to make citizens afraid to speak out in criticism of the library board. When Melanie spoke out anyway, he had those armed deputies remove her from the meeting by force. It was egregious, outrageous, blatantly illegal, and we refused to stand for it.

You can read the exact terms of the settlement below, but the gist is, those rules are gone, and those kinds of restrictions will now subject board members to removal by the Parish Council. Going forward, instead of posting bits of disturbing the peace laws taken out of context, the board will be required to post information about Louisiana’s Open Meetings laws. Instead of staring down speakers, deputies hired as security by the board will be required to stand either to the side of or behind the podium. Instead of using intimidation tactics to silence critics, the board must now honor the principles of our Democracy and allow everyone to be heard. And every current and future board member must now undergo First Amendment and Open Meetings Law training.

Despite Judge & Lunsford’s attempts at spin, the simple truth of the matter is that democracy does not work if some voices are silenced. Robert Judge smugly assumed he could do whatever he wanted because his ideology is what got him on that board. He assumed we didn’t matter, our words didn’t matter, and if we didn’t give up on our own, he could run roughshod over the rights of citizens for his own comfort and gratification without consequence.

But today we say: not on our watch.

You can read the full settlement here.

Many, many thanks to the Tulane Law First Amendment Clinic, and two years’ worth of amazing law students who worked COUNTLESS hours to help us in this fight. They are an absolute treasure, and do credit to their state and their chosen profession. Truly, not all heroes wear capes.