Library Assistant Objects To "Harry Potter" Night At Workplace, Ends Up Losing Job

According to the September 2008 issue of the ABA Journal, a library assistant (not a librarian as the Journal would have it) at the Poplar Bluff Public Library and a member of a Baptist church, objected to being scheduled for duty at "Harry Potter Night" on religious grounds; when she asked not to be included, she was given a 10 day suspension without pay and "more arduous duties" when she returned to work, according to an ACLU attorney who's working the case. She has now filed a lawsuit against the library, alleging Section 1983 violations as well as violations of her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Although the Journal doesn't say so, the complaint indicates that the library employee, Deborah Smith, has now lost her job, since she's also alleging that the director of the library, Jacqueline Thomas, "retaliated against her in response to her opposition to religious discrimination, and wrongfully discharged her." Note that the ACLU, a group that I notice that some fundamentalists demonize, has taken this case. Here's more from the Columbia Missourian.