Free Speech

Eugene Volokh | 10.30.2025 8:01 AM

Galdos-Shapiro, a school teacher in Great Barrington (Mass.), was questioned and briefly detained in her classroom by the police over her having at her desk a copy of Gender Queer, which she had available to share with students. She sued police officials, and Judge Mark Mastroianni allowed her First and Fourth Amendment claims to go forward (Galdos-Shapiro v. Town of Great Barrington); the analysis there (see yesterday's post) is quite plausible, since the book isn't obscene, and in any event the relevant state obscenity laws excludes educational uses. The opinion doesn't include the objected-to illustrations from the book, but you can see copies of what appear to be the most controversial illustrations from a different opinion, here and here.

But the court also allowed her defamation claim to go forward as well, based on a press release that read:

On December 8, 2023 [t]he Great Barrington Police Department received a complaint from a person who witnessed what they perceived to be concerning illustrations in a book that was provided to........

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