The Law and Policy of Book Bans

The EveryLibrary site’s 2023 Bill Tracking page provides a comprehensive overview of state and federal legislation that impacts libraries, particularly focusing on bills related to book bans, censorship, and intellectual freedom. The site tracks bills as they move through the legislative process, offering summaries and updates on their status. It is a valuable resource for those interested in how current legislation may affect public access to books and information.

Fayetteville Public Library, along with other plaintiffs, filed a lawsuit against Crawford County, Arkansas, challenging the county’s decision to remove or restrict access to certain books in public libraries. The lawsuit asserts that the removal of books violates patrons’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, particularly in relation to free access to information and equal protection under the law.

PEN America, a nonprofit organization advocating for free expression, along with parents and authors, filed a lawsuit against Escambia County School District in Florida. The suit challenges the removal and restriction of certain books from school libraries, claiming it violates the First Amendment. The plaintiffs argue that the district’s decisions to ban books, many of which deal with race, LGBTQIA+ themes, and marginalized groups, are ideologically motivated and unconstitutional.

Multiple lawsuits have been filed against Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” law, commonly known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. This law prohibits classroom discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. The lawsuits argue that the law is overly broad, discriminatory, and violates the rights of students and educators.

Filed by Penguin Random House, the ACLU of Iowa, and several authors against Iowa’s Senate File 496, challenging the book bans and restrictions on teaching sexual orientation and gender identity in K-6 schools.

A lawsuit has been filed against the McMinn County School Board for its decision to remove the graphic novel Maus from the curriculum. The suit alleges that the removal violates students’ First Amendment rights and represents an unconstitutional act of censorship.

Book People Inc., an independent bookstore, and other plaintiffs are challenging a Texas law that regulates the sale and distribution of books to public schools. The law requires vendors to rate books for “sexually explicit” content and places restrictions on what can be made available in schools. The plaintiffs argue that the law is vague, overly broad, and imposes unconstitutional content-based restrictions, harming the rights of authors, publishers, and booksellers.

In Warren County, Virginia, there is ongoing litigation over the local board’s decision to threaten defunding of the Samuels Public Library unless it removed certain books. The lawsuit challenges this decision as a violation of constitutional rights, arguing that it amounts to government-imposed censorship.

This landmark Supreme Court case addressed whether a school board could remove books from a school library simply because it disagreed with the content. The Island Trees School District in New York removed several books, including Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers by Langston Hughes, arguing that they were “anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, and just plain filthy. The Supreme Court held that the First Amendment limits the ability of school boards to remove books from libraries, emphasizing that students have a right to access diverse ideas and that school boards cannot remove books simply because they dislike the ideas contained in them.

This case concerned the removal of Annie on My Mind, a book about a lesbian relationship, from the Olathe, Kansas, school district’s high school libraries. The book’s removal was challenged as a violation of the First Amendment. The U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas ruled that the school district’s decision to remove the book violated the First Amendment rights of students. The court found that the removal was motivated by the school board’s disagreement with the book’s content rather than any legitimate educational concerns. The book was ordered to be returned to the school libraries.

The Cedarville School District in Arkansas required students to obtain parental permission to check out Harry Potter books from the school library due to concerns about the books’ themes of witchcraft and wizardry. A federal court ruled that the school’s restriction violated students’ First Amendment rights, emphasizing that access to information is a protected right, and that the school board’s actions were not justified by educational concerns.

In this early case, a parent challenged the inclusion of King James Bible in the library of Selma Union High School in California, arguing that its presence in the public school library violated the state constitution’s prohibition against religious instruction in public schools. The California Supreme Court held that the mere presence of the Bible in the school library did not violate the state constitution. The court reasoned that the Bible was not being used for religious instruction but was available as a reference work, and its presence did not constitute an endorsement of religion. The Bible was allowed to remain in the school library.

This case involved the Strongsville City School District in Ohio, which removed Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut from the high school library. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that removing books from a school library violated students’ First Amendment rights, as the school board’s decision was motivated by disagreement with the ideas expressed in the books rather than educational appropriateness.

In this case, a group of parents in Tennessee sued the Hawkins County Board of Education, claiming that the required reading of certain textbooks violated their religious beliefs. The textbooks in question included works that the parents argued promoted secular humanism and conflicted with their Christian faith. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the parents, holding that the use of the textbooks did not violate the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause, as the books did not require students to accept the beliefs presented.

This case involved a dispute over the banning of Howard Fast’s novel Citizen Tom Paine from a high school in New York. The book was banned by the Board of Education due to its alleged anti-American sentiments. The New York Supreme Court (a trial-level court in New York) ruled that the Board of Education had acted within its authority in banning the book. The court held that the Board had the discretion to determine the appropriateness of materials for school use and that the decision to ban the book was not unconstitutional.

This case involved a dispute over the placement of two children’s books, Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy’s Roommate, in the children’s section of the public library in Wichita Falls, Texas. The City Council passed a resolution allowing the removal of any children’s book that 300 library cardholders petitioned to have moved to the adult section. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas held that the resolution violated the First Amendment rights of library patrons. The court ruled that the City could not remove or relocate books from the children’s section of the library based solely on the content of those books. The ruling emphasized the importance of free access to information in public libraries.

Although not directly a banned book case, this landmark Supreme Court decision set a significant precedent for student free speech rights in schools. Students were suspended for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court ruled that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” This case has been cited in subsequent cases involving censorship and banned books in schools.

In this case, a parent challenged the inclusion of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut in the curriculum of Rochester Community Schools in Michigan, arguing that the book was obscene and inappropriate for students. The Michigan Court of Appeals upheld the school district’s decision to include the book in the curriculum. The court found that Slaughterhouse-Five had significant literary merit and was not obscene. The court emphasized the importance of academic freedom and the discretion of educators in selecting educational materials.