NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Supreme Court says a Livingston Parish librarian who claims she was defamed by an organization that accused her of promoting pornography to kids should have her day in court.

The 1st Circuit Court of Appeal had ended Amanda Jones' lawsuit against the Citizens for a New Louisiana and its leaders last January, after a lower court had ruled against her in 2022 and 2023.

"To catch you up, when we discovered erotic materials in several local public library children's sections, we got SUED by a librarian," the group's executive director, Michael Lunsford, wrote to supporters in a January fundraising letter. "She wanted the court to issue a gag order to prevent us from telling you about these raunchy materials, how they go there and who was supporting leaving them there."

Jones had spoken out against banning books at a 2022 library board meeting. She later sued Lunsford and others, saying they had defamed her by saying she was promoting pornography among children. Lunsford told the New York Times this year that the group simply repeated what she said at a public meeting — "that's not defamation."

In a 4-2 decision Friday, the Supreme Court directed the lower court to take up the case again. The 1st Circuit had said Jones' appeal was filed too late.

"We vacate the judgment of the court of appeal and remand the case for consideration of the entire appeal on the merits," the majority of justices wrote. 

Jones' lawsuit never reached a stage at which evidence was given. The librarian's lawyer said she looked forward to presenting the case to jurors.

"I believe a jury of ordinary citizens, whey they hear what happened to her, they would want to hold the defendants accountable," lawyer Alysson Mills of New Orleans said. "The First Amendment does not protect falsehoods."

In a concurring opinion, Justice Jefferson Hughes laid out a simple test for lower courts to follow.

"If defendants (Lunsford and others) can prove that plaintiff (Jones) did the things they claim, then the truth is a defense," Hughes wrote. "If they cannot, they have defamed the plaintiff."

"Defendants have publicly stated that plaintiff 'promot(ed) pornography and erotic contents to kids' and 'advocat(ed) teaching anal sex to 11-year-olds,'" Hughes wrote. "If plaintiff did not do these acts, she cannot prove a negative.

"The burden will be on the defendants that plaintiff did in fact do the acts they have publicly accused her of," he wrote.

Jones' lawsuit also names Ryan Thames, who runs a Facebook group Bayou State of Mind. Lunsford's lawyer declined comment Friday. Lunsford himself did not return a request for comment. Thames' lawyer couldn't be reached.

Jones has written a book about her experience.