Boise State University administrators are owed $4 million to a coffee shop owner after a jury unanimously ruled that university officials violated the woman's First Amendment rights in a confrontation over her public support for law enforcement.
In its Sept. 13 verdict, the jury awarded Big City Coffee owner Sarah Fendley $3 million in damages for loss of business, damage to her reputation, mental and emotional distress and personal humiliation. The jury also awarded the school's former vice president of student affairs an additional $1 million in punitive damages.
Fendley filed a $10 million lawsuit against the university in October 2020 after it closed its campus store. Local ReportThey alleged that the administrators conspired to retaliate against them for expressing pro-police opinions on social media.
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The thin blue line flag, used to show support for law enforcement, grew in popularity as police reform protests spread across the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd in May 2020. (Stephani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Lawyers for the university denied any retaliation and accused Fendley of trying to get the university to violate students' speech rights.
Big City opened its store on campus in September 2020, shortly after police reform protests erupted nationwide following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Fendley's support for law enforcement — she had a thin blue line sticker near the entrance of her downtown Boise store — quickly drew the ire of student activists, according to the lawsuit.
“If you truly support your BIPOC peers and other students, staff, and faculty, please don't go there,” one student posted on Snapchat after the store opened, BIPOC standing for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
A screenshot of the post was shared with Fendley, who expressed support for police in Facebook and Instagram posts, Idaho Statesman As previously reported, at the time she was engaged to a former Boise police officer who was paralyzed in a shootout with a fugitive.
According to the lawsuit, university officials were concerned that Fendley's posts would cause a “social media uproar” and quickly convened a meeting with him. The defendant, Alicia Esty, secretly recorded much of the meeting, but the recording cut off before the conversation was over, and both sides disputed the outcome, The Statesman reported.
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An aerial view of Albertsons Stadium on the Boise State University campus. (Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images)
Fendley claimed the university terminated his contract because he supported the police, but his lawyers said the move clearly violated his free speech rights. Fendley's lawyer, Michael Law, said that just hours before the meeting began, university officials had prepared a press release about the company's withdrawal from the university, and it was clear they had only one outcome in mind:
“The BSU leadership has caved in to a small number of student activists,” Law told Fox News Digital.
According to the Statesman, Big City's campus store closed four days after the meeting.
But taking the stand as the final witness before closing arguments, Esty told jurors: “We did not retaliate. [Fendley] Not at all.”
“She chose to leave. It was her choice and there was no retaliation,” Esty said. KTVB Report.
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Boise State's attorney, Keely Duke, argued that it was Fendley who was actually seeking to suppress speech. Fendley wanted university officials to use the student code of conduct to punish students who expressed opinions that differed from hers, Duke argued, adding that university officials remained neutral throughout the dispute.
“The First Amendment protects everyone,” Judge Duke told the court, “it protects Mr. Fendley's right to express his support for the thin blue line, but it also protects anyone's right not to support Big City Coffee.”
After deliberating for about three hours, the jury unanimously found in favor of Fendley.
Duke University did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but local media reported that university administrators plan to appeal the ruling to the Idaho Supreme Court.
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