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Pro-police coffee shop owner wins $4 million in free speech suit against university officials

The jury awarded Big City Coffee owner Sarah Fendley $3 million for lost business, reputational damage, mental and emotional distress and personal humiliation, in a decision reached Sept. 13. Jurors awarded her an additional $1 million in punitive damages from the school's former vice president of student affairs.

The thin blue line flag, used to show support for law enforcement, gained popularity as police reform protests swept the nation in the wake of George Floyd's death in May 2020. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

A lawyer for the administrators denied any retaliation, and accused Fendley herself of trying to get the university to infringe on students' speech rights.

Big City opened an on-campus location in September 2020, on the heels of the nationwide police reform protests that followed George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis. Fendley's support for law enforcement — she displayed a thin blue line sticker near the door of the shop's downtown Boise location — immediately stoked anger among student activists, according to the suit.

"I hope y’all don’t go there if you truly support your bipoc peers and other students, staff and faculty," one student posted on Snapchat after the shop opened. The acronym BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous and people of color.

University administrators hastily called a meeting with Fendley, worried about the social media "firestorm" her post had created, according to the suit. Defendant Alicia Estey secretly recorded much of the meeting, the Statesman reported, but the recording cut off before the conversation ended, and both sides disputed the outcome.

An aerial view of Albertsons Stadium on the Boise State University campus. (Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images)

Fendley claimed the university terminated her contract because of her support for police, a move her lawyer said clearly violated her free speech rights. Hours before the meeting started, administrators were working on a press release about the business leaving campus, Fendley's attorney Michael Roe said, making it clear they had a single outcome in mind.

"Senior administration at BSU caved to a very small number of student activists," Roe told Fox News Digital.

Big City's campus shop closed four days after the meeting, the Statesman reported.

But Estey, who took the stand as the last witness before closing arguments, told jurors, "We didn't retaliate against [Fendley] at all."

Boise State's attorney Keely Duke argued Fendley was actually the one seeking to suppress speech. Fendley wanted administrators to use the student code of conduct to punish students for expressing views she disagreed with, Duke argued, adding that administrators remained neutral throughout the conflict.

"The First Amendment protects everyone," Duke said in court. "It protects Fendley’s right to express her support for the thin blue line. It also supports, though, anyone’s right to not support Big City Coffee."

Jurors deliberated for about three hours before unanimously siding with Fendley.

Duke did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but local outlets reported the administrators plan to appeal the verdict to the Idaho Supreme Court.