A school librarian will get another chance to bring a defamation claim against two men who called her a groomer.
Amanda Jones, a Livingston parish librarian who incurred the wrath of Ryan Thames and Michael Lunsford while speaking out against book banning at a library board meeting, won an appeal on October 7, 2025, that will allow her to pursue her defamation case against the two men. A Louisiana trial court had previously struck down her defamation suit with prejudice, and the ruling was affirmed by an appeals court on procedural grounds. However, the Louisiana Supreme Court ultimately sent the case back for reconsideration on the merits.
Jones’s second appearance before the First Circuit Court of Appeals of Louisiana went much better than her first. The state appellate court determined that the trial court incorrectly dismissed the case under Louisiana's anti-SLAPP statute and that she established a likelihood of success at trial. While it can be difficult to win a defamation lawsuit, the Louisiana librarian will have the opportunity to present her case to a jury to determine whether Thames and Lunsford committed defamation regarding the claims they made about her on social media.
Sticks and Stones May Break Your Bones, But Words Can Find You Facing Defamation Allegations
These days, any public meeting involving the oversight of children can erupt into a pitched battle between those with differing opinions. The July 11, 2022, library board meeting for the Livingston Parish Library was no exception. During the proceedings, public school librarian Jones spoke out against an attempt to remove LGBTQ books from the public library in her hometown.
Her plea drove at least two other attendees to target Jones on social media. Thames, the executive director for Citizens for a New Louisiana, a conservative organization, and Lunsford, who runs a blog called “Bayou State of Mind,” accused Jones of being a groomer and advocating that pornographic and erotic material be provided to children. They also alleged that she was championing teaching 11-year-olds how to have anal sex.
Jones, who claimed to have received death threats and other disturbing communications as a result of being labeled as a pedophile and a criminal through Thames and Lunsford’s online harassment campaign. Jones filed a defamation suit against the pair in August 2022. Claiming free speech and the expression of their intellectual freedom, Thames and Lunsford filed a motion to strike under Louisiana’s Article 971, which operates as the state’s anti-SLAPP law. The defense identified Jones as a “limited public figure” on the narrow issue of library censorship through virtue of her speech and claimed their comments were opinions that didn’t meet the high bar set for defamation.
A trial court judge agreed and issued a final judgment ordering Jones to pay the legal fees for Thames and Lunsford. The First Circuit Court of Appeals denied her appeal because she missed the filing deadline in 2024.
Undaunted, Jones filed a writ with the Louisiana Supreme Court later that year, which vacated and set aside the decision on December 27, sending it back to the First Circuit. Unlike the first time, the First Circuit ruled that Jones did indeed have enough to attempt to prove that Thames and Lunsford defamed her.
Facts vs. Opinions
By getting the original verdict reversed, Jones, who was named the School Library Journal's Co-Librarian of the Year in 2021 and won the American Library Association’s (ALA) John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award in 2023, has taken a big step toward solidifying her allegations of defamation. Meeting the high bar to prove defamation through a defendant’s words, publication, knowing falsity, intended malice, and the resulting injury is no easy task. Still, with the courts now agreeing she has enough proof to bring the suit to trial, some of the onus falls on the defense to explain how their words are just opinions about a public figure instead of lies that tarnished her image.
Jones has a similar ongoing suit in New Jersey against a different defendant.
Related Resources
- Facebook Harassment: Should You Call the Cops? (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)
- Appealing a Court Decision or Judgment (FindLaw’s Filing a Lawsuit)
- Defamation vs. False Light: What Is the Difference? (FindLaw’s Torts and Personal Injury law)
