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censorship news
- A federal judge has ruled that Texas’ book evaluation law (also known as Texas House Bill 900) is unconstitutional.
- New Braunfels ISD (Texas) has resolved to close all libraries except the district’s elementary school libraries to ensure that its collection complies with State Senate Bill 13, which requires school libraries to be free of “harmful material,” “obscene material,” and “profane material.” The library has since reopened after removing more than 80 books and creating a portal for parents to try out the books.
- Another judge chipped away at library patrons’ First Amendment rights in a recent ruling in a case against the Escambia County School District (Florida).
- RELATED: Escambia County School District spends big on banning books despite budget pressures.
- A district judge in Virginia has ordered the Department of Defense to return all banned books to the shelves of its schools.
- “South Carolina public school librarians and students have filed a lawsuit in federal court asking them to block enforcement of the state’s unconstitutional book ban and classroom censorship memo issued by the state superintendent.”
- A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by an Ohio teacher who claimed her constitutional rights were violated when she was suspended without pay for having an LGBTQ+ book in her classroom. The judge said the argument did not meet the legal standard for unconstitutionality, stating that “a teacher does not have a First Amendment right to make her own ‘curricular and pedagogical choices’ in public schools…The school district pays her to instruct her students, and as part of that, she has the right to specify the materials she uses to accomplish that goal.”
- Colorado’s Anythink Library provides free digital access to 300 banned and challenged books to all state residents.
- Terry Leslie, former director of the Campbell County Library in Wyoming, has been awarded $700,000 in a lawsuit in which she was allegedly fired for refusing to remove “inappropriate” children’s books.
- In Wyoming, a bill was introduced out of committee that would remove “sexually explicit” books from school libraries and move them to adult sections of public libraries.
- A Utah state audit says the state’s current book ban may not go far enough, and there is still a “significant amount” of sexual content in school libraries.
- Meanwhile, Utah quietly banned the 19th book in all state schools.
