Rutherford County, TN library board fired director who refused to move 100+ LGBTQ books from children's section

On March 30, 2026, the Rutherford County Library Board voted 8-3 to fire library system director Luanne James after she refused to comply with the board's order to relocate more than 100 LGBTQ-themed books from the children's section to the adult section of county libraries in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The board had voted on March 16 to order the relocation, with board Chairman Cody York citing claims that the books "promote gender confusion" and that it is "dangerous and inaccurate" to tell children going through puberty that gender is not binary. Two days after the board's vote, James notified the board in writing that she would not move the books, stating that compliance would violate county residents' First Amendment rights and her professional obligation against government-mandated viewpoint discrimination.

At the March 30 meeting, where the audience alternated between cheers and boos, James told the board directly: "I stand by my decision and I will not change my mind." After the 8-3 termination vote, her attorney read a statement from James calling the firing an unlawful act of viewpoint discrimination: "Librarians should not be used as a filter for political agendas. I stood up for the right to read, standing for the citizens of Rutherford County." PEN America's Freedom to Read program director Kasey Meehan called James's firing "emblematic of the fight against censorship and suppression" nationally. The firing follows precedent: a Wyoming library director won $700,000 in settlement the previous year after being fired over a similar dispute about LGBTQ-themed books, and in December 2025 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in a Texas case that had affirmed local officials' power to remove books deemed objectionable from public libraries.

This archive records the board's termination of James as a direct act of governmental retaliation against a public employee for refusing to carry out a content-based relocation order targeting books on the basis of their viewpoint — the defining characteristic of censorship of protected expression in a publicly funded institution.

Updates

2026-06-02 — Board unanimously rescinded March 16 book-relocation order [3]

The Rutherford County Library System board voted unanimously on June 2, 2026 to overturn its March 16 vote to relocate more than 100 LGBTQ-themed books, after legal counsel warned the board it faced First Amendment liability for the removal order. The library had already incurred $8,000 in legal fees. Board Chairman Cody York — who had originally championed the relocation — called for the reversal. York was elected board chairman by a 5-3 vote at the same meeting and pledged to develop new "protective policies."