In November 2021, Brooky Parks, the teen librarian at the Erie Community Library, walked into a district library board meeting to advocate for a library closure on Martin Luther King Day. She led programming for youth of color and LGBTQ+ youth at the library. But after that board meeting, things began to rapidly deteriorate as she began working under a new supervisor.
Within roughly a month, she was terminated from her position at the library.
Rathod Mohamedbhai partner Iris Halpern and attorney Azra Taslimi said cases like Parks’ can be related to the rise of book bans and the sunsetting or restructuring of public programming offered at libraries.
Taslimi explained the efforts to remove specific books and programs are usually tied to a proclaimed effort to protect children.
Halpern and Taslimi mainly focus their legal practices on employment law and constitutional rights, but really work on anything related to civil rights. They worked on Parks’ case together, securing her a settlement in September 2023.
As part of that settlement, the library district paid Parks $250,000 in damages and attorneys fees and costs. It also agreed as part of the settlement to implement a program review committee consisting of eight members, including the various district managers at branches within the district.
Any programs that aren’t approved at the branch level can be brought for review by the new committee. Feedback or input from all librarian staff needs to be handed over to the committee before they can make a final decision about a program. Under the new system, anonymity is preserved and the information needs to be stored on the staff intranet for access by all staff. Appeals to decisions can go to the executive director.
But under the agreement, Parks isn’t allowed to apply for reemployment in any capacity, even as a volunteer, at any of the district’s libraries. She also had to dismiss her Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint within five business days of receipt of the payment.
Rathod Mohamadbhai partner Siddhartha Rathod said the impact of cases like Parks’ extend beyond settlement terms.
“These cases are not just about protecting individual jobs, they are about upholding the First Amendment and ensuring that public institutions remain spaces where diverse voices and perspectives are celebrated,” Rathod said in the nomination of Halpern and Taslimi for Lawyers of the Year.
Halpern noted even the subject of book bans and censorship is in itself divisive, and hotly debated. Texas, Florida, Missouri, Utah and roughly 37 other states have legal or civic mechanisms to censor divisive or upsetting content in the form of books or public programming at libraries.
In Colorado, a law was passed last year, Senate Bill 24-216, that requires boards of public libraries to establish policies for consideration of the removal of materials from circulation upon a request from a patron. Under the new law, libraries can’t remove materials based on demographic characteristics of the author of the material or based on partisan disapproval of the material in question.
Colorado libraries can remove books from collections only if it’s been reviewed based on the policy, which needs to be posted publicly.
Rathod said Halpern and Taslimi worked on the law with state legislators in an effort to protect libraries from book bans.
Parks’ case is a good example of why states may need more specific laws to address censorship in libraries, and Rathod noted cases like Parks’ are also a primary example of the type of intense opposition that exists in spaces like these.
“What truly sets Iris and Azra apart is their unwavering dedication to their clients and the cause,” Rathod said. “They have taken on these complex, high-stakes cases with courage and determination, often in the face of significant opposition.”
A Duo Built for This
Taslimi has been a litigator for the past decade, focusing primarily on civil rights. She represents minors with constitutional rights complaints, individuals with excessive force complaints and employees with discrimination or retaliation claims.
Over the past two years, Taslimi has handled several notable verdicts and settlements, including Parks v. High Plains Library District. She also won more than $250,000 for two discrimination cases in 2023 against Fortune 500 companies.
Taslimi is licensed in Colorado, New York and the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. She served on the boards for the governor’s Executive Clemency Advisory Board and the Colorado Bar Association from 2023 to 2024. Taslimi also served as committee chair for the South Asian Bar Association, Colorado Trial Lawyers Association and Colorado Women’s Bar Association in addition to serving on the executive board for the Colorado Bar Association’s Civil Rights Section.
Halpern worked for the Denver field office of the EEOC after she graduated law school. She served as the senior trial attorney and was an acting supervisory attorney. While at the EEOC, Halpern led a month-long trial involving hundreds of refugees with a religious discrimination complaint. That case settled for $5.5 million.
For another case at the EEOC that involved the sexual assault claims of eight undocumented housekeepers in Colorado, Halpern was awarded the Colorado Trial Lawyers Assocation Case of the Year award in 2016.
In 2015, Halpern led one of the first three cases filed by the EEOC asking courts to recognize gender identity as part of Title VII protections.
The Parks case Taslimi and Halpern worked on together won the Colorado Plaintiff Employment Lawyers Association’s case of the year award last year. Halpern also worked on Coates v. The Commissioners of Adams County, a First Amendment retaliation case against the Adams County Sheriff’s Office. The jury trial in that case finished at the end of last month.
Intrigue Beyond the Bounds of a Book’s Binding
To Taslimi, the interest of the wrongful termination cases for librarians in Colorado and other states lies beyond the surface.
“I think one of the most interesting components of the lawsuits that we’ve brought in Wyoming and Texas is the use of a not-so-well-known statute called the Ku Klux Klan act, and it was a statue that was passed after the Civil War where white supremacists, including organized members of the KKK, were terrorizing African Americans for exercising their right to vote, to run for office or to serve on juries,” Taslimi explained.
Taslimi noted the acts are among the statutes that they used to bring lawsuits on behalf of librarians.
Halpern said they are open to hearing from other attorneys about similar wrongful termination issues or civil rights cases happening across the state, including potential terminations for federal employees.