The New Hampshire Free State Project (FSP) hosted its annual NH Liberty Forum this past weekend, featuring presentations from a variety of pro-liberty speakers, including a number of Mainers headlined by Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn), who spoke on the importance of free speech and education freedom.
“I think for most of us, free speech is just it’s like breathing, right? It’s something that just is there. It’s assumed, and so we hardly notice it, or at least I hardly noticed it until someone decided to choke it off, and then we notice it a lot,” Rep. Libby said. “And I never imagined that as a duly elected representative, I would be standing before folks like this not to talk about a legislative update or the issues going on in Augusta, but the fact that I am someone who has been silenced,” she added.
“Over the last two months, I have realized something that I never thought I’d have to admit, and that is that I have taken my First Amendment right to free speech entirely for granted,” she said, alluding to her recent censure in Maine.
Libby spoke at the event in Concord, NH, on Friday about the vital importance of First Amendment free speech rights as a foundation for all other rights.
She explained her personal experience of being censured, silenced, and deprived of her vote in the Maine House of Representatives after she exercised her First Amendment rights and called for transgender-identifying males to be barred from girls’ sports.
Maine’s Democrat-controlled House, led by Speaker Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford), voted in February to censure Libby after she posted a publicly available picture on social media showing a transgender-identifying male athlete standing victorious over girls at a high school sporting event.
Under the censure, Libby—and by extension her constituents—is unable to vote or speak on the House floor unless she apologizes for her post and deletes it, something she has refused to do.
Libby used her personal experience in service of a broader point, arguing that the constitutionally protected right to free speech sets America apart from other nations and serves as the foundation for other rights, such as the right to free assembly or freedom of religion.
“This is such a big deal because the founders recognized that you can’t have all of our other freedoms without the freedom of speech right. You can’t have the freedom of religion without the ability to express what you believe in. You can’t have the right to assemble if you can’t say why you’re assembling, and you certainly can’t petition your government or challenge your government, if your voice can be silenced because you say something that is inconvenient,” said Libby.
She highlighted two instances, one in 1789 and another in 1918, when politicians Matthew Lyon and Eugene Debs, respectively, faced criminal prosecution for speaking out against the government and compared their cases to her own situation.
“The impulse to silence and to control, to punish dissent is the same, whether we’re talking about 1798, 1918, or 2025, in Maine. But we can’t allow that to exist, to continue, because what makes America different, and what sets us apart from every other country, every other nation in history, is that we don’t just tolerate free speech, we protect it,” she said.
“We’re here to protect speech because it protects all of our other rights. We don’t fear dissent. We don’t silence voices because we disagree with them. Instead, we defend their rights to be heard,” she added.
Libby argued that the growing censorship of dissenting political opinions, such as her criticism of males in girls’ sports, will ultimately lead to the end of the American Republic unless citizens stand strong in defense of free speech, even when they disagree vehemently with the speakers.
“If we lose our ability to speak, if we lose our ability to question and challenge, then we’ve lost our republic when those in power decide that certain views are too dangerous to be heard or unpopular, or they challenge the agenda and they silence elected officials or everyday citizens or anyone within the course of debate. What we’re witnessing is the erosion of representative government,” said Libby.
“I came here to exhort all of us to remind us just exactly what is at stake, because there’s an incredible amount at stake. Our rights as free people are at stake with our right to free speech and if it can happen to an elected a duly elected representative for a Facebook post, it can happen to anyone. It can happen to a pastor who says something from the pulpit that folks don’t agree with. It can happen to a teacher. It can happen to a parent speaking at a school board meeting,” she added.
Libby concluded her speech with an exhortation, calling for a fight against the “insidious creep” of censorship across the country.
Libby didn’t just speak on the First Amendment. She also appeared on a panel with three NH state legislators titled “Why Are We Still Funding Systems Instead of Students?”
The panel considered potential solutions to the nation’s education crisis and alternatives to public education, including universal school choice or programs like New Hampshire’s education freedom accounts (EFAs). EFAs allow taxpayers funding public schools to receive some of that money back if they intend to use it on homeschooling their children or sending them to private school.
Libby pointed out that the COVID-19 lockdowns awakened many parents on both sides of the political aisle to the failures of the public school system and left them considering potential alternatives. She hopes to see a move toward school choice in the Maine legislature but expects opposition from the Democratic majority.
“I think the words ‘school choice’ give the Maine Democrats in the legislature like an allergic reaction. They break out in hides and they start itching,” Libby observed.
She highlighted her currently proposed bill, LD 607, which would essentially allow for school choice, though it is unlikely to pass in the current legislative session.
[RELATED: Two Bills Would Strengthen School Choice for Maine Students through Superintendent Agreements]
When asked what change she would prioritize for Maine’s education system, Libby proposed copying NH’s EFA program and removing the state’s charter school cap that only allows ten charter schools to operate concurrently across the state.
“So it would be universal education savings accounts with a caveat tagged on at the end, and that is to remove the cap on charter schools, because we have a cap of ten in Maine, which is ridiculous and a huge disservice to Maine students. It’s like the lottery,” she said.
One Republican-led bill this session would have effectively removed the charter school cap, but it ultimately failed to draw support from the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs during its work session, making it unlikely to pass into law.
The FSP focuses on encouraging libertarians from across the country to immigrate to NH and effect change on a local level. The organization believes that, while the relatively small number of libertarians nationwide may be unable to effect change or enact their policies on a national scale, a concentrated group of libertarians living and voting in a small state like New Hampshire could significantly alter its political landscape.
Former Maine State Sen. Eric Brakey moved to NH following his final term in the Maine legislature and now serves as president of the FSP, which hosts annual libertarian events like the Liberty Forum, along with advocating for libertarian policies.
In addition to Libby’s talk, the forum, spanning all day Friday and Saturday, included a variety of topics, such as bitcoin, gun control, foreign relations, and the nature of politics.
Maine State Rep. David Boyer (R-Poland) gave a talk on Friday about Maine’s marijuana legalization policies, aimed at informing a potential weed legalization effort in NH.
On Saturday, Maine Rep. Benjamin Hymes (R-Waldo) attended the forum to support Defend the Guard laws that would prevent the U.S. government from deploying state National Guard troops in combat missions abroad without Congress first issuing a declaration of war.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="38516 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=38516">7 Comments
My roomate’s mom-in-regulation makes usd eighty one each hour at the laptop . She has been fired for eight months but remaining month her paycheck turned into usd 17367 just operating on the pc for a few hours…..
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Don’t give up Ms Libby .
You have earned a place of respect from all conservatives and common sense people in Maine .
Democrats will be defeated in 2026 . You will be vindicated. The retribution tour can then begin .
Russian – American here. Surveillance is a treacherous road. Especially now that we are facing a real dictatorship now. There must be a better way to handle traffic. And people need to be better drivers and not be driving while high, drunk or angry !!
There really needs to be good, sensible people from both parties. The rest of the world says that Americans have gone insane. All this meanness. The welfare of the country and it’s people must come before politicians and parties. 45 years of Neoliberalism has wrecked the good, middle class lifestyle that America was famous for! Bringing back the good jobs and manufacturing from overseas should be done.
Look this witch posted a picture of a minor. Put her and her family at risk. I do not give a good god damn what your issue is but you don’t do things like that.
For all you Hillbilly Eulogy types defending this witch, what if it was your child and your family? You people disgust me.
Accidental Bertha,
You know what has ruined this country? Neoconservative morons who think they have the right to tell others how to live or what to feel. What has destroyed the American family is not neoliberalism, whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean, but this exhaustive bullshite that people like you spew. Boo hoo hoo, i can’t say whatever i want and have no consequences.
Look you conservacrites, free speech in the constitution is about SPEAKING OUT AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT, not saying any god damn thing you want about private citizens.
Also Bertha Butt, you are wrong, liberals are not going to be defeated, but people like you ARE! Neochristians who use scripture, meant to enlighten and inspire as a weapon to stab people with and a sheild to hide behind, when those you attact dare to fight back.
So Bertha, crawl back into you JD bottle and pickle yourself.
Entitlement triggered?