From Van Rooy v. ANB 623 LLC, decided today by Judge Amy Berman Jackson (D.D.C.):
According to the complaint, … plaintiff [Suzannah Van Rooy] was … "social media manager" at Beuchert's [Saloon] …. In November 2024, after the most recent presidential election, plaintiff used her personal Instagram account to reply to a post by a food editor from the Washingtonian "asking servers in the District if they would feel comfortable serving officials in the new Trump administration that had committed criminal offenses." Plaintiff agreed to be interviewed in her personal capacity, and after the interview, the Washingtonian quoted plaintiff in an article entitled, "Clashes Are Coming for Trump Officials Dining Out in DC—'I have the power to make you wait 20 minutes to get your entrée'":
'This time around, there is kind of a sense of defeat and acceptance, but I hope people still do stand up to this administration and tell them their thoughts on their misbehavior,' says Suzannah Van Rooy, a server and manager at Beuchert's Saloon in Capitol Hill. 'I personally would refuse to serve any person in office who I know of as being a sex trafficker or trying to deport millions of people. It's not, Oh, we hate Republicans. It's that this person has moral convictions that are strongly opposed to mine, and I don't feel comfortable serving them.'
Following the article's publication on December 11, 2024, Beuchert's received a flood of negative comments by phone and through its social media accounts. Plaintiff used Beuchert's account to respond to several of the social media comments surrounding the article, with varying degrees of hostility. For example, to one comment on Facebook stating, "Has this staff member been disciplined for their statement?? There should be consequences for the inappropriate comments. Was just getting ready to never ever enter the door of your restaurant and to encourage others to do the same," plaintiff responded, "everyone has a right to refuse service to sex traffickers. You're safe, unless you're a sex trafficker. Are you a sex trafficker?"
Plaintiff was fired, and sued, alleging that Beuchert's posted two social media posts about the controversy containing seven statements that defamed her (emphasis added to reflect the statements as to which the court allowed the claim to go forward):
