Book Bans

On Monday, Judge Alan D. Albright of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division filed his full order blocking “READER,” a state book banning law that would require retailers to review and rate millions of books according to vague state standards for obscene content (ratings that the state could change anyway). The court ruled that the state could not delegate the rating of books to third parties, holding that it violates the First Amendment as “compelled speech.” In the preliminary injunction, the judge all but calls the Texas law dumb: “For whatever reason, Texas chose […]

In a public status conference for the trial brought by bookstores and the AAP against Texas’s book ban law, Judge Alan Albright told lawyers for each party that he will be ruling for the plaintiffs and preventing any further action from the state. The judge said that he was not able to get a written order completed by the day the law was to take effect, Sept 1, and that it should be available in the next two weeks. The order will grant a preliminary injunction to the statute in its entirety, and deny the state’s motion to dismiss the […]

Plaintiffs including the AAP and bookstores Book People and Blue Willow have field a brief opposing Texas’s motion to dismiss their lawsuit against the state’s book ban law, which would require retailers to place ratings on books. The next hearing is scheduled for Monday, and the judge is expected to make a ruling before the law would go into effect on September 1. In their filing, the plaintiffs write, “Plaintiffs have suffered an injury-in-fact that is traceable to Defendants and that will be redressed by injunctive relief. Plaintiffs’ injuries are “imminent” because they will be barred from selling any books […]

Independent booksellers BookPeople in Austin, TX and Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston have joined with the American Booksellers Association, the Association of American Publishers, the Authors Guild, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund to sue the state of Texas over their pending new law severely restricting the availability of books in school libraries. The so-called Reader Act, aka The Book Ban in the plaintiffs’ legal papers, is due to go into effect September 1. Filing in suit in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division, the plaintiffs seek both preliminary and permanent injunctions blocking […]

A new Mississippi law went into effect on July 1, restricting library access to digital materials for people under 18. As part of House Bill 1315, the state now requires permission from a parent or guardian for minors to use e-resources like Hoopla and Overdrive. BookRiot reports that even if parents grant permission, “minors may not have materials available to them, if vendors do not ensure every item within their offerings meets the new, wide-reaching definition of ‘obscenity’ per the state.” Because of the law’s onerous burden on screening a complete catalog of books in new and particular fashion, the initial […]

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights intervened in a Georgia county, finding that the removal of books about BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people “violated federal laws against race and sex discrimination,” the AP reports. The government’s argument was not about the book removals themselves, but the way the books in question were discussed in school board meetings. “Communications at board meetings conveyed the impression that books were being screened to exclude diverse authors and characters, including people who are LGBTQI+ and authors who are not white, leading to increased fears and possibly harassment,” the DOE wrote. According to […]