Arkansas librarian fired after opposing book ban efforts to receive $275K in settlement

A central Arkansas county agreed this week to pay $275,000 to the former library director who was fired after speaking against local conservatives’ push to limit children’s access to books.

Saline County announced Thursday it had reached a settlement with Patty Hector, who had been the county library’s executive director when she was fired in October 2023. County Judge Matt Brumley’s firing power came from an ordinance approved by the all-Republican quorum court, which previously urged Hector to move books with “sexual content or imagery” out of children’s reach.

Hector alleged in her 2025 legal complaint that her firing was retaliatory and violated her First Amendment right to free speech. The case was set to go to trial next week before Monday’s settlement hearing. U.S. District Judge James Moody signed off on the settlement Wednesday.

Hector said she hoped the settlement would send a message to librarians and other public servants that their constitutional rights matter.

“Standing up for the freedom to read cost me a job and a career I loved, but I never believed that staying silent was the answer,” Hector said in a news release from the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, which represented her in the litigation. “Libraries belong to everyone, and librarians should be able to serve their communities according to professional standards without fearing political retaliation.”

Brumley, a Republican, said in a statement that he disagreed with Hector’s allegations and was prepared to go to trial, but “ultimately determined the responsible decision is to resolve this matter rather than spend years in a costly legal battle at the expense of the taxpayers.” 

The county will pay $225,000 in damages and $50,000 in legal fees from the Association of Arkansas Counties Risk Management Fund.

A few months before firing Hector, Brumley told her and the county library board that he had a “high degree of concern” about her statement to the quorum court that “there is nothing wrong with” the books some citizens wanted out of children’s reach.

The books in question pertained to LGBTQ+ topics, sex education and systemic racism, which Saline County conservatives called “indoctrination” and inappropriate for children. Others said that such books reflect the community and that trying to restrict access to it is censorship.

Uncertainty over library law remains

The settlement comes as librarians have raised questions about how to enforce a state law that would impose criminal penalties for distributing content considered “harmful to minors.”

A federal appeals court in July said the 2023 law could take effect, overturning a lower court ruling blocking its enforcement.

John Adams, lead attorney for the 18 plaintiffs that challenged the law, told the Central Arkansas Library System’s governing board Thursday that he plans to ask the appeals court for clarification on compliance. CALS and its executive director, Nate Coulter, are among the plaintiffs.

Without clarification, librarians are unlikely to know what the law does and doesn’t allow “until someone actually gets charged and prosecuted,” Coulter said. Violating the law is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum prison sentence of one year.

Loni Bean, a bilingual specialist at the Dee Brown Library in southwest Little Rock, told the CALS board that supporters of Act 372 could “make an example of” an employee of the state’s largest library system.

Bean urged the board to pass a policy at next month’s meeting affirming that CALS leadership will provide legal representation and job security for any employee who faces legal challenges “arising from actions taken in good faith in the course of their job duties and in accordance with library policies.”

Coulter said he supported putting such a policy in place for his to-be-chosen successor, since he plans to retire at the end of October.

Potential library funding cuts

Hector’s lawsuit is part of a larger fight over library restrictions playing out in Arkansas and other Republican-led states. 

The Arkansas Department of Education is considering new rules that hinge public libraries’ funding on ensuring patrons age 16 or younger cannot check out materials that depict or describe sexual contact and behavior.

The department is taking public comment on a revised draft of the rules until Sept. 13. Dozens of Arkansans expressed opposition to a previous version.

An Arkansas county’s voters will decide whether to slash library funding by $1.4M

Saline County voters will also decide in November whether to cut about one-third of the county libraries’ operating budget.

“Any librarian who opposes this cut should feel free, like Patty [Hector], to speak out against it in their personal capacity,” said John Williams, legal director of the ACLU of Arkansas and Hector’s attorney in her lawsuit.

Williams promised that the ACLU “will defend any librarian whom Saline County tries to punish” for speaking against the proposal, which the quorum court put on the ballot in May by passing an ordinance.

Two years ago, Brumley rejected a similar citizen-led effort on technicalities.

Craighead County voters cut local library funding in half in 2022. Supporters of the cut included vocal opponents of the Jonesboro library’s LGBTQ+ Pride display in 2021.