Postal worker parent of trans kid refused to deliver hateful flyers. She's being punished.
Postal worker parent of trans kid refused to deliver hateful flyers. She's being punished.
"I just looked at and thought I’m not giving this to people." "I just looked at (the postcard) and thought I’m not giving this to people."
Pretty much anyone defending the postal worker here on the basis of what she did being "right" is missing the generalisation that must be made. If it's okay for postal workers to refuse to deliver mail containing viewpoints they disagree with, that means it's okay for bigoted postal workers to refuse to deliver mail from or to LGBT organisations. It means it would be okay for pro-life postal workers to refuse to deliver parcels containing birth control pills or flyers containing information about abortion services.
You cannot have it both ways. If you make a rule that there are cases when it is acceptable for postal workers to destroy or refuse to deliver mail, it will be used by the other side against you.
I think she is a legend for what she did and I think USPS was absolutely right to fire her for it.
I hope the mail goes back to being apolitical and that she experiences a soft landing and strong launch career-wise
Agreed. I work in healthcare. As healthcare workers we are obligated to treat any patients regardless of their political affiliation or background. I just provided services to a guy the other day with a huge swastika tattooed on chest. Ive administered care to prisoners, bully/aggressive patients, racists, sexists, and others I would not normally would not align myself with. It does not mean i support anything my patients do or their viewpoint. You cannot have people determining on their own that they are not doing their job because x,y,z especially with more public services involved. It is a very slippery slope
You cant make exceptions for some circumstances without the effects/consequences extending to other cases for opposite side as this commenter noted. All mail legally needs to be delivered, even in Canada. Props to the postal worker for trying to stand up for what they believe but agreed they should lose their job for it.
Providing necessary healthcare is vastly different than providing hate-speech mailers. I'm OK with the post office having a rule about not delivering mailers with blatant misinformation and/or hate-speech aimed against marginalized minority groups.
There is a gigantic difference between being forced to provide healthcare for people, regardless of political affiliation, and being forced to disseminate political propaganda and misinformation, regardless of political affiliation.
The people have rights, the flyers do not. So while I agree that the postal worker had a duty to deliver the flyer per federal law, I disagree that anyone should be allowed to freely send hateful propaganda and rhetoric to every mailbox. It's just that making a fair law around that is difficult.
You cannot have it both ways.
Ban the delivery of messages containing hate towards a group based on their identity.
Let me try to twist this rule.
The delivery of materials informing women of abortion resources is now prohibited as this represents hate towards foetuses on the basis of their unborn status and advocates for killing them.
The delivery of materials promoting diversity in hiring and criticising the makeup of the boards of directors of large companies as being overwhelmingly white and male is now prohibited as this represents hate against white male executives.
You see, the issue is that you cannot guarantee that the person interpreting the rule you want to impose will think the same way you do.
Well said. It's great she stood up for what she believes in, but aside from common-sense exceptions like trafficking/bombs, couriers can't have a say over what they deliver.
I kinda wish they did for junk mail. God please stop sending me 200 page catalogs trying to sell me boomer clothes.
I'll bite. Treating fascist flyers and LGBTQ+ flyers as the same thing is bullshit. Acting like the only fair thing to do is treat someone refusing the LGBTQ+ flyers the same as this person refusing to spread fascist flyers is bullshit. Reasons matter and it's bullshit that society has normalized stripping the context and nuance out of situations in the name of "fairness". She shouldn't have been punished. We don't have to generalize, we've been conditioned to generalize because it reinforces the status quo. It's ridiculous that people refuse to acknowledge the threat of fascism in actionable ways because it's """"""unfair""""""
Also, it's not ok for people to refuse to deliver medication on ideological grounds for an entirely different reason than it is to refuse to disseminate fascist propaganda. Postal workers wouldn't know they're delivering abortion medication in the first place as it's sealed in (at the very least) an envelope that does not provide a description of the contents in a way that would reveal abortion medications over any other medication.
It is not a matter of fairness. I don't give a shit about fairness. You are fundamentally making the same argument that the other person has tried to make in vain. I will explain the problem again using a rhetorical game for your benefit, but I will not engage in an argument with you, as you lot tend to make the same arguments ad nauseum. You will receive at most one response from me.
We'll play a simple mind game here. Let us pretend that you are on the side of good, and I am on the side of evil. Remember, this is just a rhetorical game here. We will take turns in an office which you have granted the power to censor the post. While you are in power, you can write a rule that determines what is and is not acceptable material for delivery. You can write any rule you want, constrained only by the fact that the rule must be interpretable without relying on some external oracle (i.e. "articles deemed inappropriate by @[email protected] are prohibited" is not allowed as a rule) After that, you leave office and it's my turn in office. While in office, I will have the power to interpret the rule in any way I like, constrained only by the English language. After you have left office, all powers of interpretation are given to me (until I leave office).
Your goal is to write a rule that filters out all of the content that you deem "fascist". My goal will then be to apply, interpret, and bend your rule to filter out benign or left-wing content.
Remember, the goal of this exercise is to prove to you that it is impossible to design such a rule that can adequately restrain the use of the power you have given this office without also giving me the power to censor articles you think are acceptable. If you do not wish to play this game or reply with anything other than a proposed rule, I will link to the explanation I gave the other person and there will be no more responses from me after that.
If you want to play, reply with your proposed rule. I will reply with a way to interpret it in such a way that can be used to censor unintended articles.
generalization that must be made
No such generalization has to be made, what?
If you make a rule
Why does saying someone did the right thing require you to make a rule?
It's not about having it both ways. This is a strategic decision to defend life and liberty. We do not need to tolerate intolerance nor should we.
Gender affirming care is a collection of lifesaving medical treatments. A ban on gender affirming care would deny trans people the fundamental right to exist. So the postal worker's decision to not spread a life-threatening targeted disinformation campaign was a strategic decision to defend life and liberty.
We should not base our decisions on what fascists will do. Fascists are bad-faith actors. Bad-faith actors will attempt to infiltrate and undermine all of our systems and intuitions and bend the rules to do whatever they want. We should instead focus our efforts on preventing bad-faith actors such as fascists from overturning our democracy and instituting a christo-fascist dictatorship.
Also, I'm aware this happened in Canada. We should want to see the same thing happen this November 5th in the US when fascists attempt to overturn our democracy. We should want people in positions of leadership and power to say no.
It's their right to not do a task that is not agreeable with their views. Sure it's against company rules and can lead to a reprimand and or discharge.
This is a hyperbole but this can be equated to a soldier not following an unlawful command by their superior.
That seems like a very backwards way to talk about "rights". They don't have the right to infringe upon the rights of others, which is the reason they face legal consequences for doing so.
It'd be like me saying "I have the right to kill indiscriminately, and the state has the right to punish me for it," instead of simply "I don't have the right to kill indiscriminately."
This way of thinking is problematic. Freedom of speech is a social contract and hate speech is a violation of that contract.
I understand where they are coming from, but its not their job to dictate what mail gets delivered.
and it opens the door for right wingers to do the same if they do not get serious punishment for this.
This is a non technical example of why we want net neutrality.
As terrible as the flyers are, personal political and religious beliefs should not be enforced in any way at a workplace.
Functionally this is similar to that county clerk that refused to issue marriage certificates to same sex couples. Can't be supportive of one and not the other without being hypocritical.
Personally, I think refraining from distributing genocidal propaganda is pretty functionally dissimilar to being a bigot.
I don't want to come off as abrasive and I don't want to assume any ill-intent on your part, but it's fucking frustrating hearing takes like this as a trans person. Equating the refusal to participate in a hateful disinformation campaign to refusing to marry a gay couple is deifying the liberal concepts of law & order at the expense of human decency. It is not hypocrisy to support anti-fascist actions whilst denouncing fascist actions, even if they express those actions in a similar fashion. For example, I largely support Just Stop Oil's disruptive protests, whereas I would be disgusted if fascists defaced artworks by spray-painting swastikas all over. Is that hypocritical?
Again, sorry if I come on strongly in this comment, my frustrations are definitely from society at large rather than your comment, but having your right to exist being framed as a "political belief" is frankly exhausting.
I feel like there's a "law as it currently exists" thing versus the ideal. The law as it currently exists makes it illegal to discriminate based on content. This has historically been an important vector for, say, allowing civil rights activists to send essays to be published in newspapers. But much as it was illegal to deny a gay couple their marriage license, it ought be somehow made illegal to spread damaging lies about trans people in order to stir up a hate campaign.
In this case I'd say that 5 days fully paid suspension is probably an appropriate consequence for this rule-breaking, and could only be made more appropriate if it actually included tickets to spend those days someplace warmer and friendlier than that part of Canada and a knowing wink from the postmaster general.
That’s like saying if you support gay rights protestors, you have to also support nazi protestors, or you’re being hypocritical. You’re looking at things on the wrong axis.
Yeah that's exactly correct. Protestors and counter protestors both have a right to express their views, regardless of what I think of those views. As long as they don't violate any laws in the process. That is literally one of the pillars the US is built on for instance. I don't have to agree with you to defend your right to say those things I disagree with. The right to that freedom of expression is literally the 1st Amendment in the US.
I don't know what the limits are on speech in Canada, but they're likely similar, just not as extremely biased towards protection. The US defends too much honestly.
That doesn't mean that your opinions and expressions are immune from controversy or disagreement. And speech is limited in certain circumstances, like direct threats. That's not what's happening here though.
I was thinking more about the “can’t force me to make a cake for a gay wedding” thing
As others have said it’s a government position and it’s delivering mail. I’m not sure if Canadian law, but in think that’s a pretty severe crime in the US.
What if the person didn’t want to deliver medicine because they believed that god will heal everything?
While the mail is hateful, it needs to be delivered.
Also consider that someone paid for the flyers and paid to have them mailed. So this guy is effectively robbing them of two different transactions.
To be clear, I don’t support the flyers in any way, but what the guy did was wrong.
Canada isn’t under the jurisdiction of American law.
That one too. Although that was a private business, not a governmental organization.
The postal worker in question doesn't own Canada Post.
Good. This is the same as a pharmacist refusing to fill a prescription due to personal beliefs. You took a job knowing what it would entail.
No, this would be like refusing to spread a disinformation campaign designed to ban lifesaving medical treatments provided by said pharmacist. It's not a personal belief, but a strategic decision to defend life and liberty. Banning gender affirming care would deny trans people the fundamental right to exist. Tolerating intolerance should not be a part of anyone's job description.
Pharmacists can get away with that. The mail person is a federal employee and doesn't have that luxury.
While I have the utmost sympathy for her, if a postal worker is picking and choosing what mail is to be delivered the entire concept of the post office becomes moot.
Yeah. I have very strong political, moral, and ethical opinions.
I'm also a government employee, and those opinions disappear when I'm performing my duties. I enforce rules I find idiotic all the damn time and let people get away with bullshit that should be illegal. They're not my rules.
Yep. This is part of the "Do the job" deal.
Because I'm sure we'll be up in arms if a religious Postal worker elected to not deliver mail for religious reasons.
Just so people can judge for themselves...
“God doesn’t make mistakes.” This has to be the best argument I have ever seen. Just wow… Can’t god also solve the 3x+1 problem? Would be useful.
this is a phrase I've started to turn around in a trans-affirming way: god doesn't make mistakes, do you really think he couldn't conceive of a trans person?
Don't wear Glasses or use viagra as God intended.
Good to see that conservatives are focused on the widespread problems that really matter to people internationally and not just down here in the US!
/s
At some point we have to recognize that these organizations are delivering blatant misinformation and hate-speech. That is, speech designed to "other" an already minority group of civilians.
These postcards accuse teachers of “pushing transgenderism” and describe gender-affirming medical care as “chemical and surgical mutilation.”
This hateful and divisive rhetoric has real effects on trans people just trying to live their lives, and one should not be forced to participate in the dissemination of said hate-speech propaganda. I'm glad that they just suspended her, and ended up paying her for the days missed after she came back.
I, for one, am sick an tired of being delivered hate-speech in the mail. Some of the republican mailers I get are littered with the same hateful misinformation. It does nothing but foment anger towards an already marginalized minority group. It's wrong, and the post office should refuse to deliver it.
That actually happens? I can’t say I’ve ever gotten hateful misinformation in the mail (and no, I don’t want to find out). My snail mail is mostly spam, with the occasional bill that doesn’t want to be electronic. More than half the time, it all goes directly in the recycle bin.
I, for one, am sick an tired of being delivered hate-speech in the mail. Some of the republican mailers I get are littered with the same hateful misinformation. It does nothing but foment anger towards an already marginalized minority group. It’s wrong, and the post office should refuse to deliver it.
Honestly, a part of me likes getting this mail just so I can easily identify the morons in my state.
"Oh, this person running for senator thinks aliens are coming to eat your dog in Ohio? Well… I now know they're bad. *trashes mail*
I don't disagree in therory but there is no way we can let postal workers have a say in what they can or cannot deliver. Fire them for doing it and move on.
We should not fire people for standing up to fascism.
And the next postal worker who wont deliver a flyer on birth control or how to vote because its goes against what they believe? Should they not be fired for standing up for that? Their job is to deliver the mail not judge what someone receives. I get garbage in the mail all the time and know exactly what to do with it. I throw it in the trash.
I'm just here to watch people who cheered and defended the lady who wouldn't marry a gay couple suddenly care about government employees doing their job regardless of opinion.
I agree but this logic cuts both ways.
The people that disliked the courthouse lady shouldn't be too surprised or upset now that the shoe's on the other foot.
No I still believe actions have consequences, I'm saying either they do or they don't and people who want to play it both ways need to STFU.
However, while of course you can't police what goes out in an envelope, I don't think these materials should have been allowed to ship. Of course, while they say little Billy knowing the 2 guys next door are in love is too much for his fragile little brain the "won't someone think of the kids" crowd don't bat an eye at little Billy running down to the mailbox and pulling out a fearmongering postcard about genital mutilation.
This is hateful shit.
Unfortunately, they have the same argument as Kim Davis for not doing their duty.
They both refuse to do their duty due to moral concerns.
Hate speech doesn't get protected under free speech. These aren't the same.
It is not a moral concern, but a strategic decision. Gender affirming care is a collection of lifesaving medical treatments. A ban on gender affirming care would deny trans people the fundamental right to exist. So refusing to spread a life-threatening disinformation campaign is a strategic decision to defend life and liberty.
Tolerance may end with Intolerance, but idk how I feel about postal workers having the right to decide what does and does not get mailed.
We should all have the right to reject intolerance. Otherwise we will not have a society that is capable of tolerating anyone. This wasn't a personal letter. It was a targeted disinformation campaign designed to ban lifesaving medical treatments. The disinformation campaign infringed on a group of people's right to exist.
Then, the post office or individuals can challenge the entity in court to stop them from sending out the campaign.
Or legislators can pass a bill that gives very tight definitions of content that can be refused at the facility.
But each postal worker taking into their own hands what to toss just seems like the wrong solution.
It’s good actually that the mail doesn’t censor based on viewpoint
A disinformation campaign designed to ban lifesaving medical treatments isn't a viewpoint we need to respect. The success of such of a campaign would deny trans people the fundamental right to exist.
People can refuse to bake a cake for a gay couple.
People get punished for not delivering hate mail.
Why is it so easy for hatred to do things but so hard for decency to push back?
Because typically "decency" doesn't use a 2x4 with nails driven through it to get the point across...
🎵 but the taaaahms they are a chaaaaangin' 🎶
While I sympathize… That's fair. Same as the people working in pharmacies and refusing to hand out birth control. If you have moral qualms about your job, find another job.
Except this would be like a disinformation campaign to ban birth control. Abortion is lifesaving health care and is reproductive freedom. So taking actions against such a disinformation campaigns is not a moral qualm, but a strategic decision to prioritize life and liberty. This is exactly the kind of strategic thinking we need people in positions of leadership and power to take to prevent a christo-fascist takeover in the upcoming election on November 5th.
Disgusting as it is, she has a job to perform and has no authority to determine what mail is sent. This shit needs to be stopped at the source, not by a mail carrier. Either do you job or step aside.
Whenever laws get broken, it's constantly "I was just doing my job".
The Postal office can find someone else to do that delivery.
You don't know how long they've been working there. And that directly puts their family at potential harm.
Worse people have thrown better mail away for worse reasons.
Relevance?
No matter a person's job, everyone should reject intolerance. This was a disinformation campaign designed to ban gender affirming care, a collection of lifesaving medical treatments. Such a ban would deny trans people the fundamental right to exist. Postal workers should make the strategic decision to defend life and liberty by not spreading such disinformation campaigns.
i assume there are federal laws on delivering mail to people, considering that like. That shits important sometimes.
We can differentiate between free speech and a disinformation campaign intended to ban lifesaving medical treatments. Similar to how we can differentiate between disagreement and death threats. Such a ban on gender affirming care would deny trans people the fundamental right to exist.
this is absolutely true, however when it comes to things like mail, tampering with mail is highly questionable, i guess if you wished to legally prosecute sending "anti queer" things through the mail, you could. Seems like a waste of resources to me, but that's an option you have as a society.
i would much rather anti-disinformation be focused on instead. That's almost always more important, as it generally targets this stuff directly, rather than indirectly.
https://philosophyterms.com/paradox-of-tolerance/
There is a concept called the paradox of tolerance. In order for a society to be tolerant, it needs to accept all people. However, there are people who are intolerant. If society accepts them, they will have to elevate the speech of the intolerant which means incorporating intolerance into society. If society rejects them, they will have to be intolerant to a group of people which means incorporating intolerance into society. The paradox seems unsolvable until it is reframed.
https://conversational-leadership.net/tolerance-is-a-social-contract/
Rather than tolerance being a straight jacket it is instead a contract or peace treaty. As long as everyone is tolerant to each other everything is fine. As soon as a group chooses to be intolerant, they have breached the agreement. This means the intolerant group is no longer protected by the agreement. The rest of society no longer has to tolerate the intolerant group. Nor should they, because to do so would be to condone intolerance against members of society. The society as a whole remains tolerant because all the rest of the groups practice tolerance to each other.
https://www.healthline.com/health/what-is-gender-affirming-care
Gender affirming care involves helping trans people, both youths and adults, to transition to their gender identity through the use of therapy, puberty blockers, and hormone therapy. It is lifesaving care. Unsubstantiated attacks to gender affirming care are a threat to the lives of all trans people. Threatening the lives of people with a disinformation campaign is a breach of the social contract of tolerance. When fascists attempt to spread life-threatening disinformation campaigns, people at all levels of society should stand up to them.
This woman did the right thing. She put human life and liberty over the mail. Standing up to fascists doesn't always mean punching Nazis. It means seeing intolerance for what it is and refusing to tolerate it. We may all find ourselves in similar situations sooner rather than later. We should all seek to emulate this woman.
https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/glossary/harm-principle
To be as clear as possible, banning gender affirming care will put trans people in a life threatening situation. So this disinformation campaign to ban gender affirming care, if successful, can only lead to putting trans people in a life threatening situation. A person's freedoms should not extend to the point where they are free to harm other people. Disinformation that can only harm a group of people should not be protected speech.
I know this topic can be contentious as the mail is an essential service for many people. And I'm aware not everyone is familiar with trans issues. I spoke up because I saw people falling into a common trap. Standing up to fascists doesn't make us fascists. Freedom of speech rests on the foundation of the truth. If we tolerate lies, elevating them to the same status as the truth, we undermine free speech. My hope is that people will see this was not a moral disagreement. This was a strategic decision to defend a group's right to exist, that did not infringe on anyone else's freedoms. The right of an apolitical, uninterrupted mail service should not supersede a group's right to exist. edit: updated the third link edit: typo
Hey friend, I fully agree with your stance. I was going through the Canadian charter of rights and freedoms and was actually surprised by how much is permitted. I always thought that Canada's freedom of expression laws were more restrictive than other places- as I have heard of people (non-Canadians) being banned from the country based on their conduct.
Specifically, falsehoods are protected "Being content-neutral, the Charter also protects the expression of both truths and falsehoods (Canada (Attorney General) v. JTI-Macdonald Corp., [2007] 2 S.C.R. 610 "
So that was disappointing. Also, there have been similar cases in the past with homophobic flyers that were deemed legal because the content did not meet the threshold to be considered hate speech.
I wonder whether it would be permissible to distribute flyers that say "stop cancer treatment for children! God doesn't make mistakes!" Borrowing the verbiage from the flyers in the article.
I'm feeling very disappointed at the moment. I don't disagree with the mom's actions at all. The content was fundementally abhorrent to her beliefs (and science).
Sorry to hear about what you've discovered with Canada's charter. It's definitely good to take breaks from this stuff because it can be discouraging. I try to think about this stuff in lighthearted terms so I can focus on contributing to useful discourse.
Thankfully we live democracies. So, in the long run, we can work to make our societies better places to live for everyone. Hopefully we will be able to leave things in a better state than we found them. I like to think stories like this mom's story will inspire us all to do better.
People in this thread: sensible
This kind of discourse always seems sensible until it is about the lifesaving medical care of people you know.
What have we become? Like, maybe we should be lifting our citizens up and not denigrating them? Maybe. I'm not with the government anymore. What do I know?
You have the right idea.
I have nothing against trans but this person should have delivered them. If these are legal there is no reason not too. Just think of it as any other trash mail.
As a society, we should not tolerate intolerance. It is not enough to individually toss out the flyers as trash. There are people who could be mislead into denying trans people their fundamental right to exist.
Gender affirming care is a collection of lifesaving medical treatments. A ban on gender affirming care would deny trans people the fundamental right to exist. This Canadian women's act of civil disobedience by refusing to spread a targeted life-threatening disinformation campaign is a strategic decision to defend life and liberty.
We should stand up to fascists, even if there isn't a law telling us to do so.
I disagree with the part where a single person gets to decide to follow a law or not because it opens up the other side doing the same thing.
That same gender affirming care could be through the post, in which case someone who disagrees could just not deliver it.
The law needs to apply evenly or what is a loophole to one is shenanigans to the other.
Freedom only applies to cakes apparently
Canada Post is legally obligated to deliver whatever meets the postal regulations and has proper postage affixed to it.
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of spite stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds
This is in Canada not the US.
We should want to see postal workers in the US do the same thing. Especially elected officials with responsibilities overseeing elections since the MAGA movement, a chriso-fascist movement, is attempting to takeover our democracy and start a genocidal dictatorship.
I find it disturbing how many people here condemn or "both sides" her when all she did was refuse to distribute flyers advocating to take lifesaving medical care away from her child
Any halfways decent parent would've done the same. These bigots want to see her child dead or suffering, she is under no obligation to do their work for them
Y'all I just fell down a rabbit hole. I understood that Canada has a limited right to expression- meaning hate speech is prohibited, and checked the New Brunswick's human rights act- gender expression and gender identity are protected classes.
BUT it seems really similar to this case: https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/12876/index.do where the court ruled that the material was not hateful enough to be hate speech? I wonder if the best thing to do is make their own (better) flyers promoting love. It's unfortunate- falsehoods are actually protected under freedom of expression.
I can't imagine how devastating it must be for that mother to have to handle and disperse materials that challenge her daughter's right to exist and live in a way that makes her feel safe. I understand the importance of freedom of expression rules, but I have a feeling that if these flyers were going out saying that children with other medical conditions shouldn't be receiving care, or children with disabilities shouldn't receive accomodation in the classroom, there would be more of an uproar. It's so sad that one group of children seems to be an acceptable target.
If I had this flyer delivered to me I'd use my reasoning skills to bin it, maybe mock it first. Seems silly not to deliver it. It's only going to be read by the already bigoted. Any sensible individual knows what to do with it.
Devil's advocate for a second here: do we all remember the baker that refused to make some LGBT wedding cake? He was crucified for that, so hateful, etc. But in basics, this is the same thing. Yes, the flyers are hateful, but that is not her job to determine or judge that. I get her issue with it for sure, but there is more than just her opinion.
If she can refuse to deliver this, then that baker can refuse to do an LGBT cake and love happily with that decision.
Edit: to clarify: the baker was a shitty person. This person cannot refuse to do her job, but she can quit
The difference is that one of them is officially acting on behalf of the federal government and one is just a bigoted private citizen.
The postal worker has violated federal law and should be held accountable legally.
The baker is a shitty person and was publicly called out for it but not legally punished.
the problem legally is that the post office is a federal institution and the bakery is a private business.
however, if i remember correctly, there was a woman who worked for a state office that was refusing to do gay marriage certificates and she got away with it.
i don't know. laws are stupid to begin with which is why i say ignore them and do what's right.
I believe you're thinking of this peice of work: https://apnews.com/general-news-cf28301d7af44fa38bb29dddd4d5e1c2
Looks like she was not allowed to refuse to grant licenses, served jail time for the stunt and since then has received eye-watering legal bills and damages for her antics. I imagine as a county employee she wasn't wealthy enough to pay 300k+ in damages and fees very easily, although maybe she was clever enough to be able to spin a lucrative book or speaking deal from the situation
Only congress is limited in the first amendment, other branches of government do it all the time