A 2001 free-speech suit against the Portage (Wis.) Public Library will end up costing the library $2,000 in insurance fees, officials revealed in mid-November. The sum is in addition to $4,500 in fees that the city paid in April before changing its meeting-room policy. The change was made in response to the Genesis Commission’s free-speech challenge of the library’s refusal to book a meeting room for the creationist group.
The suit had not requested monetary damages, but asked for a change in library policy, which had originally excluded meetings of a religious or political nature. The new policy deletes that clause, although it retains bans on private parties and commercial promotions.
According to the November 15 Portage Daily Register, libraries throughout the state have updated their meeting-room policies similarly as a result of the case.
Posted November 19, 2001.