On September 5, 2025, a federal judge in Baton Rouge handed librarian-turned-activist and Livingston Parish Public School System employee Amanda “Banana” Jones an unwelcome surprise: her lawsuit against New Jersey’s Dan Kleinman won’t be heard in Louisiana. Instead, she’ll have to pay lawyers to traipse all the way to New Jersey to continue her charade.
Judge Brian A. Jackson ruled that because Jones filed identical lawsuits in both Louisiana and New Jersey, the first-to-file rule requires the case to remain in New Jersey. While the judge noted that Louisiana would otherwise be the more natural venue (since Jones claims the harm happened here), federal courts try to avoid “duplicate litigation.” By Jones’s own incompetence, New Jersey received the earlier timestamp — so New Jersey gets the case.
A History of Lawfare
This isn’t Jones’s first foray into the courtroom. She first gained notoriety after suing Citizens for a New Louisiana and others, only to have her case tossed as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP). That means the judge ruled Jones intended to use a lawsuit to silence her opponents. Although her lawsuit against us has gone all the way to the Louisiana Supreme Court, the original October 11, 2022, decision has never been overturned.
Now, in pursuing Kleinman, Jones once again hired attorney Alysson Mills to file her complaint in Louisiana. However, it’s interesting that Mills didn’t carry the New Jersey side of the suit. Either she is not licensed or she did not apply for pro hac vice admission to appear in New Jersey. Instead, the strategy was to hire another Louisiana firm, Fishman-Haygood, to file in New Jersey. If you aren’t familiar with Fishman-Haygood, they’re best known for finding ways to tax people without their consent. What do they do with all that tax money? Well, pay consultants (like themselves) all kinds of administrative fees, of course!
Mills is also representing Michelle Parrish in a looming dispute with Livingston Parish Library. No formal lawsuit has surfaced, but Mills has reportedly sent a letter of counsel to the Parish, and Jones herself organized Parrish’s GoFundMe fundraiser. These newly revealed Jones/Parrish associations tie up everyone’s suspicions with a neat little bow. Yes, the taxpayer-funded library activists have been working together.
Narrative vs. Facts
Jones has built a national profile through the American Library Association’s promotion of her book That Librarian and as the featured subject of Sarah Jessica Parker’s Sundance-premiered documentary The Librarians. These fictional portrayals pitch Jones as a frontline warrior in the fight against “book banning.”
There’s only one problem. Jones herself admitted in the Livingston Parish News (Aug. 26, 2024):
“There have been no ‘outright book bans’ in Louisiana. The challenges at recent Library Board meetings have been mostly about where certain books should be appropriately shelved.”
That contradiction has not gone unnoticed. Critics point out that Jones is conflating disputes over shelving locations with unsubstantiated claims of book banning. In addition to benefiting her and the ALA’s political agenda, it also boosts their fundraising efforts. Can you imagine how effective those fundraising pleas would be if she led with: “No books have been banned. I made it all up.” These are the kinds of half-truth, shady tactics we’ve come to expect from Jones and the Left.
What’s Next
For now, Jones’s case against Kleinman has been packed off to New Jersey. There she’ll have an uphill battle. Will she be able to convince a judge that this lawsuit is somehow different? This time, she’s not trying to weaponize his court against her ideological opponent’s right to free speech. Pinky-promise.
As it stands today, though, the only ruling Jones has managed to secure in court is that she has engaged in lawfare. In addition, she has now filed two more lawsuits and is helping Michelle Parrish to file yet another one. I’m sure the poor folks waiting for yet another rumored Jones-directed lawsuit to drop in Livingston Parish would agree that this is getting ridiculous.
In a broader context, this tactic is straight from the Leftist playbook. Way back in 2022, the legacy media asked me to comment on Jones’ lawsuit against me. My response hasn’t changed: Those who can’t articulate a winning argument must silence opponents who can. It was the motivation behind Charlie Kirk’s assassination. That’s also the motivation for Jones’s aggressive and expensive lawsuits against parents who only want to protect kids from vulgar books in their public library. While the methods differ, the end goal remains the same. Shut up, or it will happen to you next.
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