Library Won’t Change Policies
Despite White Supremacist’s Suit
The board of trustees for the Schaumburg Township (Ill.) District Library decided May 14 not to modify its meeting-room policy, which excludes gatherings that could prove disruptive. Their review came in the wake of a free-speech lawsuit filed against the library by World Church of the Creator founder Matthew Hale because he was denied use of the meeting room. Hale’s March appearance at the Wallingford (Conn.) Public Library had caused a near riot by protesters offended by his white-supremacist views.
According to the May 16 Chicago Tribune, Library Insurance Management and Risk Control Combination President Jane Rowland had urged the board in a May 9 letter to add to its meeting-room policies “appropriate criteria for denying an application.” But trustees were leery of changing a policy in the midst of a lawsuit—which libraries in three states have done within the last month under similar circumstances.
Meantime, library attorney Gerard E. Dempsey is arguing that Hale lacks legal standing because local resident Kathleen Robertazzo had requested use of the meeting room on Hale’s behalf, according to the May 17 Schaumburg Review.
Posted May 21, 2001.
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