Miss America Organization, Gretchen Carlson win preliminary round in lawsuit challenging her takeover of iconic Atlantic City institution

ATLANTIC CITY — The battle for Miss America moved from its usual grand venue of Boardwalk Hall to a third-floor courtroom Friday, and a judge in this first preliminary round ruled in favor of the Miss America Organization and controversial board chair Gretchen Carlson.

In a ruling issued from the bench, Superior Court Judge Michael Blee declined to issue an injunction requested by former Miss North Carolina Jennifer Vaden-Barth and four state organizations, challenging what they described as Carlson’s “bad faith takeover” of the Atlantic City institution.

The injunction would have stopped the Miss America Organization from pursuing new state organizations in its quest to overhaul the competition as Miss America 2.0, without swimsuits and focused more on individual achievement.

The organization faces an uncertain future as funding from the State of New Jersey has expired, and there are no set pageant date, venue, television rights agreement, or financial subsidy in place. Numerous state organizations had their licenses terminated, though some, like New Jersey, appealed and have been reinstated with new executive directors.

The judge acknowledged the dedication of state organization directors and volunteers and devotion to Miss America — their lawyer described it as “losing something, almost like a child” — but said the organization (MAO) owns the trademark and the right to license its state competition partners, who run the feeder pageants that deliver contestants to Atlantic City.

“Plaintiff state organizations do not own ... the brand,” Blee said. “They do not have a right to continue with this brand. MAO and not state organizations own the trademark. The state organizations are limited to a two-year-term. MAO has no obligation. There’s no guarantee of long-term involvement.”

The courtroom was filled with representatives of state organizations from all over the country, including Georgia, Tennessee, and West Virginia, and the hearing was followed closely on social media by Miss America fans. Former Miss America Suzette Charles, who has opposed the current leadership, also attended.

The idea that state organizations were “merely licensees” was met with sharp objection from across the Miss America community. “Merely licensees?!?” said one observer on Twitter. “More like heartfelt VOLUNTEERS who once believed in the greater good of this organization.”

The lawsuit was filed after Carlson and executive director Regina Hopper exerted control over the new board of trustees, installed after an email scandal ousted former director Sam Haskell. Carlson moved to force Vaden-Barth off the board and, the plaintiffs said, improperly cut off a meeting at which her decisions were being challenged by hanging up during a conference call.

Neither Hopper or Carlson was present in the courtroom Friday.

The plaintiffs' attorney Paul Perkins portrayed the case as a fight for the soul of Miss America, waged by its true defenders against a leadership that has ruled by intimidation and retaliation. “We’re not fighting over money,” he said. “We’re fighting for the survival of an institution.”

But attorney Timothy Davis, representing the Miss America Organization, described the plaintiffs as “meddling and interfering” with the new organizations and “trying to prevent them from getting the pageant off the ground.”

The case will continue, with the next hearing set for Feb. 12.

The judge said he did not find that any “irreparable harm” would occur if he did not grant the injunction request. He said there should not be any effect on the availability of scholarship money at the state level because under state organization agreements, “scholarship funds must be transferred to new organizations.”

He did rule that Vaden-Barth had legal standing to file the lawsuit and to make her case that the Miss America Organization had been damaged by the actions of Carlson and current leadership.

In a statement following the ruling, the Miss America Organization called the judge’s ruling “complete and total victory.”

“We are pleased that the new licensees in these states can continue their work unencumbered by these meritless legal challenges,” it said.

Vaden-Barth, who works for Google, said the plaintiffs would continue to press their case “because we believe we’re fighting for the right thing, for thousands of volunteers.”

She said the dispute was not over changes to the pageant instituted by Carlson, like the elimination of the swimsuit competition.

“By the way, we all commit to the newer mission of Miss America," she said. "But we want it with integrity and good governance. That’s what we’ve been fighting about. Change isn’t that hard, we just need integrity and good governance.”