Leaders of The Tuscaloosa Eagle Forum Are Safely Back Home

When Eagle Forum of Alabama filed a lawsuit on March 10th, 2026 to protect a Christian organization from unconstitutional religious discrimination at The Tuscaloosa Public Library, the leaders of the Tuscaloosa Action Group of Eagle Forum were comfortably settled in their house that they had been renting for twelve years. They were eager for the lawsuit filed on their behalf by Alliance Defending Freedom to permit them back into the Rotary Room at The Tuscaloosa Public Library with the hopes of hosting a reading of The Declaration of Independence to commemorate the Semiquincentennial of the signing of America's founding document on July 04th. Much to their surprise, their long-time landlady was also a member of The Tuscaloosa Public Library Board of Trustees.

Whether a matter of coincidental timing or not, upon the filing of the lawsuit, the leaders of the Tuscaloosa Action Group of Eagle Forum of Alabama, were then informed by their landlady that they had six and a half weeks to move out of the home they had been renting for over a decade . . . or else face eviction. This prompted a very stressful time for the civically involved couple. As they were now faced with the double tasks of finding a new home and moving out of their existing dwelling. After a thorough search, they were able to find a new home to purchase. But the stress of the process landed them both in the hospital.

One of the leaders of the Tuscaloosa Action Group of Eagle Forum was informed that she had fluid in her lungs and was faced with the choice of either having triple bypass surgery or going to hospice. She opted for the surgery. From which she has successfully recovered. After her recovery from the hospital, her husband then had to enter the hospital for another matter. Yet, they are both content to report that they have signed the papers for their new home and as of today have both recovered from their hospital stays. With both of them hoping that The Tuscaloosa Public Library will allow Eagle Forum to resume their meetings in the Rotary Room of the publicly funded institution. Especially, in time for them to host one of their trademark readings of The Declaration of Independence around the Fourth of July.

While typically, The Tuscaloosa Public Library invites a wide variety of groups to use its Rotary Room meeting space. The library staff denied Eagle Forum access to its meeting space, "solely because of its religious character and activity." As the Senior Counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, Travis Barham, states, "The Tuscaloosa Public Library can't close its meeting spaces to religious groups like Eagle Forum while swinging them wide open to every manner of secular organizations. Such religious discrimination blatantly violates the Constitution." In fact, the reason given by the library in an e-mail to the leaders of the Tuscaloosa Action Group of Eagle Forum for denying the civic organization the use of its meeting space is merely due to the "current political and social climate".

Eagle Forum of Alabama maintains that "Religious Americans should never be treated as second-class participants in public life." With Becky Garritson, the executive director of Eagle Forum of Alabama, specifying that the "Tuscaloosa Public Library has no right to lock us out of its publicly available meeting space just because library staff may disagree with our views on politics or religion". With the lawsuit specifying that "The Library's policies have deprived and continue to deprive Eagle Forum of its rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution."

The suit is still pending in The United States District Court For The Northern District Of Alabama Western Division.

Luisa Reyes is a Tuscaloosa attorney, piano instructor, vocalist, poet, reporter, and columnist who writes on current events, politics, and the arts.