From the decision Thursday by Judge Katherine Polk Failla (S.D.N.Y.) in Maron v. Legal Aid Society:
On July 23, 2020, Plaintiff Maud Maron, a career public defender at Defendant The Legal Aid Society ("LAS"), penned an op-ed in the New York Post entitled "Racial Obsessions Make it Impossible for NYC Schools to Treat Parents, Kids As People" (the "Op-Ed"). Speaking simultaneously in her capacities as a mother, public defender, elected public school council member, and then-candidate for New York City Council, Plaintiff recounted in the Op-Ed her experience at an anti-bias training run by the New York City Department of Education ("DOE").
She decried what she perceived as DOE's endorsement of the "chilling doctrine called anti-racism," which she asserted "insists on defining everyone by race, invites discrimination[,] and divides all thought and behavior along a racial axis." Responding to the Op-Ed, the Black Attorneys of Legal Aid ("BALA"), a caucus of Defendant Association of Legal Aid Attorneys ("ALAA," or the "Union," and together with LAS, "Defendants"), issued a public statement denouncing Plaintiff's "racist" views and characterizing her "as a classic example of what 21st century racism looks like." LAS followed with its own statement, which similarly rebuked Plaintiff's "racist perspective" and questioned the ability of any public defender to "effectively and fully" engage in public interest work if they do not embrace an anti-racist mandate….
The court considered Plaintiff's Title VII claim "that the public statements issued by LAS and BALA criticized Plaintiff and her ability to work as a public defender because of her race":
