A lawsuit filed by Julie Jaman, the Port Townsend woman banned for life from the city pool after a confrontation there with a transgender employee in July 2022, continues its …
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A lawsuit filed by Julie Jaman, the Port Townsend woman banned for life from the city pool after a confrontation there with a transgender employee in July 2022, continues its journey through Western District Court.
Attorneys for the city and the Olympic Peninsula YMCA are seeking a dismissal of the case while attorneys for Jaman are engaged in discovery that they say is likely to be completed in late spring.
Jaman, 82, was permanently banned from the pool after confronting Clementine Adams, a transgender pool employee, in the women’s locker room. Jaman claims the YMCA violated her constitutionally protected rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to Free Speech, Due Process, and Equal Protection.
“The YMCA filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings, sort of like a motion to dismiss, back on Nov. 12,” said Eric Sell, associate counsel for the Center for American Liberty (CAL), which represents Jaman.
Sell said the city made an “anticipated argument” that the YMCA is a private entity and “not subject to the Constitution. CAL filed a brief in response that the argument was “incorrect with respect to this specific YMCA and its operation of the city’s pool.”
Sell said that if the court rules in favor of their argument, “that will go a long way toward resolving this case.”
The YMCA operates the city pool through a joint management agreement.
After the confrontation with Adams and pool manager Rowan DeLuna, DeLuna ejected Jaman from the facility and banned her for life. The incident garnered national attention, including on Fox News, which led to a temporary pool closure, protests at the facility and tensions at a city council meeting. CAL was founded by Harmeet Dhillon, a candidate for the Republican National Committee in 2022.
Attorneys for the YMCA argue in their motion that in order for Jaman’s rights to be violated, the YMCA must have been acting under the “color of state law” at the time of the alleged Constitutional Violation, which occurred on July 26, 2022, the day she was banned from the YMCA.
“Most of Ms. Jaman’s factual allegations are of post-ban conduct. Ms. Jaman makes no factually possible allegations of conduct before July 26, 2022,” according to filing by counsel representing the YMCA.
They also argue that Jaman, through 29 exhibits and 816 pages — shows merely a contractual relationship between the city and the YMCA.
“A merely contractual relationship between the government and non-
governmental party does not support joint action,”they write.
The YMCA entered into a leasing agreement with the city to manage and operate the pool. Moreover, the attorneys write, the agreement gives the YMCA full discretion to manage and operate the pool, including staffing decisions and employment policies.
“At no point does Ms. Jaman provide a single, plausible, factual allegation that supports a cause of action against the YMCA,” the attorneys write. “She cites no supporting facts from the 816 pages of exhibits attached to her complaint. Regardless, none of them support plaintiff’s bare allegations; instead, the complaint exhibits contradict them.”
The legal conflict started with a letter dated March 19, 2024, when Jaman, through counsel, sought $350,000 in damages, her ban lifted and a formal apology from the city. When city and YMCA officials did not comply, Jaman sued.