Judge rules Michael Lunsford, Citizens for New La. owe librarian $50,000 in attorney fees; The Acadiana Advocate, July 2, 2026

CLAIRE TAYLOR , The Acadiana Advocate; Judge rules Michael Lunsford, Citizens for New La. owe librarian $50,000 in attorney fees

[Kip Currier: It's dizzying to remind ourselves via articles like this 7/2/26 one in The Acadiana Advocate of the legal twists and turns that librarian Amanda Jones has traversed to arrive at this $50,000 settlement agreement for attorney fees in her lawsuit for alleged defamation against Citizens for a New Louisiana.

Ms. Jones previously secured a recorded apology and $1 payment from blogger Ryan Thames in November 2025. 

I was fortunate to speak with the greatly-in-demand inspiring intellectual freedom advocate Amanda Jones in April 2025 for a recorded interview that graduate students continue to be able to learn from in my MLIS degree's "required core course" The Information Professional in Communities at the University of Pittsburgh. Her profile is also included in the Intellectual Freedom chapter of my 2025 Bloomsbury book Ethics, Information, and Technology.

Ms. Jones shared on LinkedIn recently that she was "incredibly humbled and grateful" to learn that her 2024 Bloomsbury book That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America "has been included in The Obama Foundation Public Library collection of non circulating books, specially chosen by President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama."

Kudos to Amanda Jones -- and other dedicated librarians and information professionals throughout the world -- for courageously standing up for intellectual freedom and access to diverse viewpoints and voices through books.]

"A Livingston Parish judge has ruled that Michael Lunsford and the Lafayette-based Citizens for a New Louisiana owe $50,000 to a librarian in a defamation case that has not yet been tried on its merits.

Twenty-first Judicial District Court Judge Erika Sledge of Livingston Parish on June 15 awarded Amanda Jones, a Livingston Parish school librarian, $50,979 to be paid by Citzens for a New Louisiana and Executive Director Michael Lunsford.

In 2022, Jones spoke at a Livingston Parish Library board meeting against censorship and the proposal removal of books. Lunsford, who runs the social media for the conservative Citizens for a New Louisiana and blogger Ryan Thames blasted Jones on social media, equating her opposition to banning publications like “This Book Is Gay” to supporting the grooming of children and pornography...

Jones has since settled with Thames who issued a public apology."

Atlantic Settles Writer’s Suit Over Article It Retracted; The New York Times, September 12, 2025

 Katie Robertson, The New York Times; Atlantic Settles Writer’s Suit Over Article It Retracted

"The Atlantic quietly agreed to pay more than $1 million early this summer to settle a lawsuit by the writer Ruth Shalit Barrett, who had accused the magazine of defamation after it took the rare step of retracting an article she had written and replacing it with an editor’s note, according to a person with knowledge of the settlement.

Ms. Barrett, who wrote an article about youth sports in wealthy areas as a freelancer for The Atlantic in 2020, sued the publication and one of its editors in January 2022. She said the outlet had smeared her reputation and asked for $1 million in damages.

Both sides agreed to resolve their dispute in mediation in April and asked for the suit to be voluntarily dismissed on June 27 when they reached a settlement, according to court documents. The Atlantic made updates to the editor’s note on the online version of the article on June 26."

Florida settles lawsuit after challenge to ‘don’t say gay’ law; Associated Press via The Guardian, March 11, 2024

Associated Press via The Guardian ; Florida settles lawsuit after challenge to ‘don’t say gay’ law

"Under the terms of the settlement, the Florida board of education will send instructions to every school district saying the Florida law does not prohibit discussing LGBTQ+ people, nor prevent anti-bullying rules on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or disallow Gay-Straight Alliance groups. The settlement also spells out that the law is neutral – meaning what applies to LGBTQ+ people also applies to heterosexual people – and that it doesn’t apply to library books not being used for instruction in the classroom.

The law also doesn’t apply to books with incidental references to LGBTQ+ characters or same-sex couples, “as they are not instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity any more than a math problem asking students to add bushels of apples is instruction on apple farming”, according to the settlement.

“What this settlement does, is, it re-establishes the fundamental principal, that I hope all Americans agree with, which is every kid in this country is entitled to an education at a public school where they feel safe, their dignity is respected and where their families and parents are welcomed,” Roberta Kaplan, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said in an interview."

Facebook pays $550m settlement for breaking Illinois data protection law; The Guardian, January 30, 2020

Alex Hern, The Guardian; Facebook pays $550m settlement for breaking Illinois data protection law

"Facebook has settled a lawsuit over facial recognition technology, agreeing to pay $550m (£419m) over accusations it had broken an Illinois state law regulating the use of biometric details...

It is one of the largest payouts for a privacy breach in US history, a marker of the strength of Illinois’s nation-leading privacy laws. The New York Times, which first reported the settlement, noted that the sum “dwarfed” the $380m penalty the credit bureau Equifax agreed to pay over a much larger customer data breach in 2017."

Target to Pay $18.5M to States Over Data Breach; Inside Counsel, May 24, 2017

P.J. D'Annunuzio, Inside Counsel; 

Target to Pay $18.5M to States Over Data Breach

"Deterrence was a major theme brought up by many of the attorneys general who released statements about the agreement.

The $18.5 million settlement with the states, coupled with the $10 million consumer class action settlement approved last week, may seem like a drop in the bucket for a retail juggernaut like Target, but according to Lambiras, the deterrent effect lies in the residual legal and public relations costs companies incur following a data breach.

In a statement Tuesday, Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen said the settlement should serve as a wake-up call to companies to tighten their data security. He also gave kudos to Target for working with authorities after the breach."