Fredric Alan Maxwell, author of Bad Boy Ballmer: The Man Who Runs Microsoft (Morrow, 2002), was prohibited from using the library for one year on January 10. According to a memo to the library staff by Library Director Josie Parker quoted in the June 4 Ann Arbor News, this came about after Maxwell attempted to use the library’s West Branch two weeks after being removed from the library by the police and banned for a month because of two previous incidents.
Parker claimed in the memo that on December 12 Maxwell used obscene language in the presence of a staff member. Maxwell told the News that he didn’t realize that the admonishment he received was an official warning. He added that on December 30 he used an expletive in a low voice when he was frustrated by a computer policy. When a staff member spoke to him about the matter later, he said he raised his voice and insisted that he could say “anything I [expletive] want to.” The Ann Arbor police issued Maxwell a written notice that he had violated a city ordinance by swearing and that he was banned from the library for one month.
Parker said that the rules are posted clearly in every branch and that people are warned first about offending behavior; action is only taken if the behavior continues.
Maxwell, who was once arrested for protesting hours reductions at the Library of Congress, said he was considering a lawsuit to regain his privileges on the basis that the policy violated his rights under the First Amendment. “I don’t want to sue, but some institutions only respond to that,” he added.
Posted June 11, 2004; revised July 1, 2004.