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https://nypost.com/2024/09/24/us-news/pro-police-coffee-shop-owner-wins-4-million-in-free-speech-suit-against-university-officials/
Pro-police coffee shop owner wins $4 million in free speech suit against
university officials
By Hannah Ray Lambert, Fox News
Published Sep. 24, 2024, 10:32 a.m. ET
126 Comments
Originally Published by:
Fox News
Boise State University administrators owe a coffee shop owner $4 million
after a jury unanimously ruled the school officials violated the woman’s
First Amendment rights in a conflict over her public support of law
enforcement.
The jury awarded Big City Coffee owner Sarah Fendley $3 million for lost
business, reputational damage, mental and emotional distress and
personal humiliation, in a decision reached Sept. 13.
Jurors awarded her an additional $1 million in punitive damages from the
school’s former vice president of student affairs.
Fendley originally sued the university for $10 million after she closed
her campus shop in October 2020, according to local reports, arguing
administrators conspired to retaliate against her for expressing
pro-police views on social media.
A lawyer for the administrators denied any retaliation, and accused
Fendley herself of trying to get the university to infringe on students’
speech rights.
Big City opened an on-campus location in September 2020, on the heels of
the nationwide police reform protests that followed George Floyd’s
killing in Minneapolis.
Big City Coffee owner Sarah Fendley testifying in court
6
Boise State University administrators owe Big City Coffee owner Sarah
Fendley $3 million for lost business, reputational damage, mental and
emotional distress, and personal humiliation, in a decision reached
Sept. 13.
KTVB
Fendley’s support for law enforcement — she displayed a thin blue line
sticker near the door of the shop’s downtown Boise location —
immediately stoked anger among student activists, according to the suit.
“I hope y’all don’t go there if you truly support your bipoc peers and
other students, staff and faculty,” one student posted on Snapchat after
the shop opened. The acronym BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous and
people of color.
A screenshot of the post was shared with Fendley, who responded to it
with her own public Facebook and Instagram posts explaining her support
for police, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.
Pro-police sticker on business door
6
The jury unanimously ruled the school officials violated Fendley’s First
Amendment rights.
KTVB
At the time, she was engaged to a former Boise police officer who had
been paralyzed in a gunfight with a fugitive.
University administrators hastily called a meeting with Fendley, worried
about the social media “firestorm” her post had created, according to
the suit.
Defendant Alicia Estey secretly recorded much of the meeting, the
Statesman reported, but the recording cut off before the conversation
ended, and both sides disputed the outcome.
Big City Coffee owner Sarah Fendley testifying in court
6
Fendley originally sued the university for $10 million after she closed
her campus shop in October 2020, arguing administrators conspired to
retaliate against her pro-police views, according to local reports.
KTVB
Fendley claimed the university terminated her contract because of her
support for police, a move her lawyer said clearly violated her free
speech rights. Hours before the meeting started, administrators were
working on a press release about the business leaving campus, Fendley’s
attorney Michael Roe said, making it clear they had a single outcome in
mind.
“Senior administration at BSU caved to a very small number of student
activists,” Roe told Fox News Digital.
Big City’s campus shop closed four days after the meeting, the Statesman
reported.
But Estey, who took the stand as the last witness before closing
arguments, told jurors, “We didn’t retaliate against [Fendley] at all.”
Big City Coffee storefront with cow statues outside
6
Big City opened an on-campus location in September 2020, on the heels of
the nationwide police reform protests that followed George Floyd’s
killing in Minneapolis.
KTVB
Boise State University sign on campus
6
Fendley claimed the university terminated her contract because of her
support for police, a move her lawyer said clearly violated her free
speech rights.
MelissaMN – stock.adobe.com
“She made a choice to leave, which was her choice to make, there was no
retaliation,” Estey said, according to a KTVB report.
Boise State’s attorney Keely Duke argued Fendley was actually the one
seeking to suppress speech.
Fendley wanted administrators to use the student code of conduct to
punish students for expressing views she disagreed with, Duke argued,
adding that administrators remained neutral throughout the conflict.
Big City coffee sign
6
Jurors deliberated for about three hours before unanimously siding with
Fendley.
KTVB
126
What do you think? Post a comment.
“The First Amendment protects everyone,” Duke said in court. “It
protects Fendley’s right to express her support for the thin blue line.
It also supports, though, anyone’s right to not support Big City Coffee.”
Jurors deliberated for about three hours before unanimously siding with
Fendley.
Duke did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but local
outlets reported the administrators plan to appeal the verdict to the
Idaho Supreme Court.
Filed under coffee shops court first amendment idaho 9/24/24
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Conversation126 Comments
Share your stance. Please adhere to our guidelines.
Edward Auchincloss
24 September, 2024
Imagine for a moment it's 1950 and a business owner's backing the blue
is common knowledge in the neighborhood. About the last thing almost
anyone would think might result in their wildest imagination is an
uproar of some sort. We do live in strange but interesting times when
some object to the brave among us putting their lives on the line daily
keeping others-even their detractors-safe from all manner of mishap.
Next, some will object to apple pie.
Fred Ickenham
24 September, 2024
This case is very similar to the Gibson's bakery case in Ohio where
Oberlin College lost $30 million in a jury trial to that bakery, after a
black student shoplifted lots of items. When the store understandably
objected to him doing that, the university organized a boycott of the
store, accusing them of racism. this greatly hurt their business, which
had been in business For more than 100 years and had a good relationship
with the university students and the local area.