Bill Halle still thinks the Pennsylvania School Boards Association should have listened to the advice of Butler School Board members — even though, he said, PSBA never asked for it in the first place.

Failure to do so could end up costing the association thousands upon thousands of dollars — money that Halle and his fellow board members last year officially objected to the PSBA spending, partly in their name.

On Friday a federal judge refused to throw out the lawsuit of a Bucks County resident and his organization against the PSBA, the latest development in a legal exchange that has now lasted nearly a year.

The legal wrangling between Simon Campbell, who runs Pennsylvanians for Union Reform, and the PSBA involves Butler School District in multiple ways.

Campbell, who sued Butler School District in 2011 for a list of names and addresses of district property owners, attracted the ire of PSBA officials last year over what the association called a “relentless campaign of harassment, repeated defamations, tortious interference and abuse of process under the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law.”

Now PSBA is facing a countersuit filed by Campbell, who in March filed in federal court. In court documents he asks a judge to “end retaliation and intimidation by government entities and representatives against a private citizen ...,” and seeking monetary and punitive damages.

Read more about this case in Monday's Butler Eagle.