Small business owner faces legal obstacles fighting for her free speech rights
A coffee shop owner, ousted from Boise State University due to student backlash over her support for law enforcement, is continuing her legal battle against the school.
Sarah Fendley updated The College Fix ahead of an upcoming trial on the current status of the lawsuit she filed which argues her free speech rights were violated by the university.
Fendley noted she has faced numerous legal obstacles, including multiple motions from BSU’s defense team to dismiss the case. Despite these challenges, she said she hopes the trial will finally allow her to present the facts and prove her side of the story.
She was forced to close Big City Coffee on Boise State University’s campus in October 2020, as previously reported by The College Fix. She stumbled upon meeting minutes from the Inclusive Excellence Student Council on BSU’s website, where her business was labeled as “anti-Black” and a threat to the safety of students of color.
“Her support of Thin Blue Line began in 2016 when her police officer partner was shot five times in an altercation with an escaped prisoner, causing the loss of his leg and binding him to a wheelchair,” The Fix previously reported. Since then, Fendley has prominently displayed Thin Blue Line flags at her other coffee shop locations, passionately standing by the work of first responders.
“We have survived three motions to dismiss and one for summary judgment from the BSU defense team and they just filed…a motion for reconsideration, and an alternative motion for permissive appeal,” Fendley told The Fix in an email statement recently.
“My hope is that we actually get to trial,” she said. “My legal team has paved a brick road of top-notch legal work to get us this far, and we plan on getting to trial.”
Fendley told The Fix that the upcoming trial will focus on her “First Amendment retaliation claim against Boise state.” The trial is scheduled for this Wednesday, but if it doesn’t proceed, Fendley plans to appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court.
Although court-ordered mediation took place in July, it was unsuccessful. Fendley stated that the school “declined to participate in good faith.”
The coffee shop owner expressed her frustration to The Fix over the university’s handling of the case, stating:
BSU had spent, as I write this, over a million dollars on outside legal and PR to destroy me and muddy the waters of the simple truth. They caved to a small group of students, the Inclusive Excellence Student Council, who were also paid w2 employees of the school and they had me removed…from campus for alleged racism by way of two facts- I have a sticker on my door downtown and second I had a policeman at home.
Those are the only facts- it is not a fact that I am anti-black, racist, my cafe unsafe for people of color for over a decade and that I was or would bring the wrong kind of people onto campus. That is untrue and there is no truth and no record of any of that ever happening. That money should be spent on students. Instead, that taxpayer money was spent on a lie.
She said the university has blocked discovery requests and documents at every turn, with a judge limiting the language her legal team can use in court, forbidding terms such as “activist,” “liberal,” and “conservative.”
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Additionally, Fendley told The Fix BSU employed multiple law firms and their in-house legal team, incurring costs exceeding $830,000, which doesn’t account for internal expenses.
Fendley also said the university has even attempted to discredit her attorney, Mike Roe, by painting him as “misogynistic” and “violent.”
When asked about her case’s implications for free expression, Fendley voiced her concerns about the potential consequences for others who might find themselves in similar situations. “If that alone—having a flag and a heart-shaped blue line flag sticker on my door—is enough to get you canceled, fired, and removed, we are in big trouble.”
“Are people going to be canceled, fired, removed, and slandered like I was for being supportive of women in sports? Or one political party over the other? Where does this end?” Fendley stated.
Despite these obstacles, Fendley remains committed to telling her story and believes that the evidence will support her claims. “I will succeed as long as my story is out there, and win or lose, I plan on getting the story out there,” she told The Fix.
The Fix reached out to the Boise State Office of General Counsel via email and phone call on Aug. 13 and 16 asking for the official reasoning behind the removal of Big City Coffee from campus and the university’s response to the allegations that it has obstructed the legal process.
At the time of the incident, Cambree Kanala and Alyssa Wainaina were members of the Inclusive Excellence Student Council. The Fix reached out via email and instagram message on Aug. 13 to ask about their motivation for wanting the coffee shop removed from campus, whether they would have handled the situation differently looking back, and whether Fendley should be allowed back on campus.
The Fix has not received a response from BSU or the students involved.
However, Boise State University spokesperson Sherry Squires explained the circumstances behind Big City Coffee’s decision to leave campus to The College Fix in 2020. “After some students began speaking out against the owner’s personal beliefs, we explained that we could not violate the First Amendment Rights of anyone on campus,” Squires stated. “Following that, the owner requested to be let out of the contract. We agreed to the owner’s request.”
MORE: Coffee shop owner bullied off Boise State demands $10M from university
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