Mass Resistance reports that husband and wife Hugh and Susan Bennett, and their adult son Kevin, are all facing a federal lawsuit filed by Terri Lesley, a former Campbell County library director.
The family has now filed a motion to dismiss after obtaining legal representation from a Florida law firm, Weber, Crabb, and Wein. It is unclear when a judge will rule on that motion, which was filed Jan. 8.
Lesley was fired this past summer by the library board after she reportedly refused to remove the books from the library shelves despite a new policy to flag sexually graphic books.
Arthur Schaper, field director for Mass Resistance, tells AFN the local citizens in Campbell County, including the Bennett family, fought for more than two years to convince the library board to revise its policy. Part of that lobbying effort, he says, was to show those books to the board and to point out Lesley was allowing them to remain there.
Campbell County citizens formed a Mass Resistance chapter during their fight, which is how Schaper and the national group have become involved.
Regarding the lawsuit against the family, Schaper calls it “completely baseless” because it cites the Ku Klux Klan Act, which dates back to the 1870s. That federal law protects a person from people deprived of their constitutional rights as a government official.
Schaper calls it a “retaliatory lawsuit,” too, because his organization views it as an attempt to intimidate others from speaking out for fear of litigation.
Mass Resistance, which began in uber-liberal Massachusetts, has grown into an army of scrappy, grassroots activists who keep scoring wins against Democrats and communists in local political fights across the country.
