Court filing seeks to prevent Crawford County library from paying legal fees

Plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Crawford County regarding the county’s library system and the First Amendment have asked the courts to make clear that the county cannot make threats to defund the library.

U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III ruled Sept. 30 against Crawford County in a First Amendment lawsuit regarding the removal and relocation of books largely because of objections from citizens to LGBTQ content.

In his decision, Holmes states that the “Court finds that even when the evidentiary record is construed in the light most favorable to the Defendants, it is indisputable that the creation and maintenance of the social section was motivated in substantial part by a desire to impede users’ access to books containing viewpoints that are unpopular or controversial in Crawford County.”

Holmes ordered the books be returned to their original locations and plaintiff’s attorney fees be paid by the county. According to the court, the plaintiffs sought an award of $112,978.31, with $108,377.75 for attorneys fees and $4,600.56 for costs.

Lawyers for Crawford County filed for an extension Oct. 23 seeking to move the response date on the settlement of financial award from Oct. 29 to Nov. 27 in an effort to negotiate a fee settlement with the plaintiffs – specifically attorney Brian Meadors who represented the plaintiffs.

Crawford County general funds have paid for all legal fees related to the litigation. However, at the Crawford County Library System Board meeting on Monday (Oct. 28), it was discussed that the county may ask the library system to pay $100,000 in fees, noted an affidavit included with a motion to amend the judgment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas Fort Smith Division.

“(The) County said, on multiple occasions, that the County would be paying the fees, not the library. And that makes sense. After all, as held by the Court, a reasonable factfinder could infer that ‘the social section was created in response to coercion from the Quorum Court,’” the motion states.

The motion also states that after the court entered judgment against the defendants, several defendants began planning to pay the plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees out of the library funds rather than the county’s fund.

In the affidavit attached to the motion, the library director objected to the idea of library money being used to pay legal fees arising from this case saying it would adversely impact staff pay and book acquisitions. Library board attorney Bob Ballinger said Crawford County’s attorney wants the library to pay $100,000, the affidavit states.

In his ruling on Sept. 30, Holmes said the defendants, including the Crawford County Quorum Court, must “refrain from coercing Crawford County Library System staff into acting inconsistently with this injunction.”

“Thus, Defendants who threaten library funding are coercing the library and are therefore in violation of the Court’s order,” according to the brief filed Monday.

The motion asks that the court make clear to the defendants that they are not to make threats to defund the library, noting that requiring the library or the library system to pay legal fees is in essence threatening to defund the library.

“Plaintiffs pray that this Court add the following sentence (or words to its effect) to Doc. 106: ‘Defendants are further ORDERED that none of the monies for the fees, expenses, or other costs of this lawsuit (or any subsequent proceedings) come, directly or indirectly, from Crawford County Library System funds or the System’s anticipated, normal income,’” the motion states.