Judge orders books removed from Texas public libraries due to LGBTQ and racial content must be replaced within 24 hours | CNN
Category: News & Politics
Via: jbb • 2 years ago • 63 commentsBy: Alaa Elassar,Taylor Romine,Andy Rose (CNN)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
US District Judge Robert Pitman ruled that at least 12 books removed from public libraries must be placed back onto shelves within 24 hours. Courtney Sacco/Odessa American/AP CNN —
A federal judge in Texas ruled that at least 12 books removed from public libraries by Llano County officials, many because of their LGBTQ and racial content, must be placed back onto shelves within 24 hours, according to an order filed Thursday.
Seven residents sued county officials in April 2022, claiming their First and 14th Amendment rights were violated when books deemed inappropriate by some people in the community and Republican lawmakers were removed from public libraries or access was restricted.
The lawsuitfiled in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas in San Antonioclaimed county officials removed books from the shelves of the three-branch public library system "because they disagree with the ideas within them" and terminated access to thousands of digital books because they could not ban two specific titles.
Books ordered to return to shelves include "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents" by Isabel Wilkerson, "They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti and "Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen" by Jazz Jennings.
The library system also is required to reflect these books as available in their catalog and cannot remove any books for any reason while the case is ongoing, US District Judge Robert Pitman said in his order.
"Although libraries are afforded great discretion for their selection and acquisition decisions, the First Amendment prohibits the removal of books from libraries based on either viewpoint or content discrimination," Pitman said.
The fight to protect access to books comes amid a book banning boom, with an alarming increase in attempts to censor books in K-12 schools, universities and public libraries. Many of these efforts seek to pull books with LGBTQ characters or themes and are part of a broader, conservative-led movement to chisel away at the rights and status of LGBTQ Americans.
Many of the book bans have also been aimed at authors of color exploring history, racism or their own experiences in America.
"This is a ringing victory for democracy," said Ellen Leonida, an attorney representing the plaintiffs in the Texas case. "The government cannot tell citizens what they can or can't read. Our nation was founded on the free exchange of ideas, and banning books you disagree with is a direct attack on our most basic liberties."
It wasn't immediately clear whether Llano County officials have complied with the judge's order.
Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham, county commissioners Jerry Don Moss, Peter Jones, Mike Sandoval, and Linda Raschke; library system director Amber Milum and four members of the Llano County library board, Bonnie Wallace, Rochelle Wells, Rhonda Schneider, and Gay Baskin, are named as co-defendants in the case. They did not respond to CNN requests for comment.
The defendantsargued the books were removed as part of a regular "weeding" process following the library's existing policies, but Pitman said there was clear influence from outside sources.
"Whether or not the books in fact qualified for 'weeding' under the library's existing policies, there is no real question that the targeted review was directly prompted by complaints from patrons and county officials over the contents of these titles," the judge wrote in his order.
"And, notably, there is no evidence that any of the books were slated to be reviewed for weeding prior to the receipt of these complaints; to the contrary, many other books eligible for weeding based on the same factors appear to have remained on the shelves for many years," he said.
Complaints from community groups targeted multiple books they labeled as "pornographic filth" because they promoted "acceptance of LGBTQ views," according to the order. These books were removed from the libraries, according to the order, as well as other books listed as "pornographic" that were about " 'critical race theory' and related racial themes."
In one email from community member Bonnie Wallace, who was later elected to the library board, she suggested "all the pastors to get involved in this. Perhaps they can organize a weekly prayer vigil on this specific issue. … May God protect our children from this FILTH."
County commissioners also voted to dissolve the library board and replace it with a new "Library Advisory Board" that appointed multiple Llano County residents, including Wallace, who advocated for the book removals, the order said.
The new board required all new books to "be presented to and approved" by them before purchase, and staff librarians were banned from attending the new board's meetings, according to the order.
Book bans aim to 'suppress the voices' of LGBTQ and communities of color
Dozens of books have been pulled from shelves in Texas, new policies expanding oversight of books are being drafted or already passed in multiple states, a Florida school district halted library purchases and a teacher resigned in Oklahoma over the censorship of books in classroom libraries.
In 2022, the number of attempts to censor library books reached an unparalleled record high since the American Library Association (ALA) began documenting data about book censorship over 20 years ago, ALA said in a March press release.
ALA cataloged 1,269 attempts in 2022; nearly double the number of challenges in 2021.
"A book challenge is a demand to remove a book from a library's collection so that no one else can read it," Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, said in a statement. "Their aim is to suppress the voices of those traditionally excluded from our nation's conversations, such as people in the LGBTQIA+ community or people of color."
Schools are among those where book bans have been especially targeted. In 2022, Texas led the country with the most book bans - 713 - affecting 16 school districts, followed by Pennsylvania and Florida with 456 and 204 bans, respectively,according to an analysis by PEN America, a literary and free expression advocacy organization.
"Each attempt to ban a book by one of these groups represents a direct attack on every person's constitutionally protected right to freely choose what books to read and what ideas to explore," Caldwell-Stone said. "The choice of what to read must be left to the reader or, in the case of children, to parents. That choice does not belong to self-appointed book police."
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"Conservative-led movement" got caught stripping the people they don't like of their rights and wanted to do so with impunity. Or, just don't care about how unequal it is. That is, liberals and LGBTQ should have no rights and privileges that a conservative ought to respect. The attempt, the action, is reprehensible. It can not be forgiven, because some conservatives will try this again, and again, and yet again.
More than 70% of voters, including 75% of Democrats and 70% of Republicans, oppose banning books, according to a March 2022 survey by the ALA. Sixty percent of parents oppose the idea; 40% support it in some cases.
When It Comes to Banning Books, Both Right and Left Are Guilty | Opinion
What is your point-Whataboutism? Have is it you don't understand motivation, reasoning, and degrees all play a role in how matters are decided, judged, and opined upon? Do not just dazzle us with stats which in the larger context of discussion are irrelevant to this discussion. Democrats and Republicans ban books for different reason, motivations, and purposes!
Nuance (details) matter!
That doesn’t matter, banning books is wrong.
There you go again, all three can’t occur with one little comment. Maybe you can take Psych 101 as an Adult Education class at University of Maryland.
You still don’t understand the terms you use, so it’s just a copy n paste phrase to you.
This time your use of questions marks was appropriate as you really don’t know.
Don't be ridiculous. You can't simply WILL all book banning to be wrong anymore irrespective of content and messaging. If it was so, pornography could be coming to a library near you! You should know this, so I don't know what you attempting to pull with that comment.
Federal law prohibits the possession with intent to sell or distribute obscenity, to send, ship, or receive obscenity, to import obscenity, and to transport obscenity across state borders for purposes of distribution.
And so what is your POINT? As pornography is legal in appropriate settings: Banned in inappropriate settings. Where am I wrong? I do hope you get to the point (soon) as these elongated deflections into side-bars is getting quite 'old' with you. I am starting to think it is intentional to deflect. Is it?
What is your point, that libs only want to ban porn?
In this context, what does deflection mean to you?
My point has been made several comments ago. See above.
What books, besides porn, do you want banned? What is your motivation, reasoning, and what degrees play a role in your list?
Nuance (details) matter!
This is a deflection. This discussion is not about pornography or any books I personally want banned (if any). Stop derailing, please.
No it's not: P sychological deflection is somewhat similar to blame-shifting and it is a narcissistic abuse tactic that is often used by narcissists but more respectively, Covert narcissists in order to move attention for their bad behaviors away from them, and then redirect it towards other people they may use as their scapegoats. With this tactic, a narcissist is able to control the mind and the emotions of everyone around him/her.
You brought up pornography, I didn't.
You spoke of liberal motivations for banning books, I then asked for some details.
Stop evading, please.
I'm not going to waste time on this. Talk about the topic, not peripherals. This is not the topic or even near it.
Or anyone else's.
The topic is book banning.
"Conservative-led movement" got caught stripping the people they don't like of their rights to read what is legal and did so with impunity. They don't care about how unequal it is. That is, liberals and LGBTQ should have no rights and privileges that a conservative ought to respect. The attempt, the action, is reprehensible. It can not be forgiven, because some conservatives will try this again, and again, and yet again.
Maybe they self identify as conservative, but I don't define that bas conservative. Should people have a right to read, Of Mice and Men, To Kill A Mockingbird, Huckleberry Finn, Dr. Seuss books, SkippyJon Jones books, etc? If not, why?
Yes, why not? I read a great amount of books of/about our national history of racism (and Mandingo series). I don't know what a "SkippyJon Jones" is.
Thanks, you see no defense for liberal book banning.
There goes the liberals are in 'lockstep' theory, eh? There is too much rancor in this country, and it casts a pall on 'everything.'
I thought you promised not to waste anymore of our time on you’re comments on this.
Yeah, too much rancor in this country and it's casting a pall on 'everything.'
Did you really mean pall?
If you must ask: Yes.
A pall is a cloth placed over a coffin, tomb or hearse. Thus the term pall bearers...
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pall
1 of 3verb (1)
intransitive verb
transitive verb
cast a pall on / over
idiom
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BRAVO!!! I hope that judgement spreads across the nation, especially Florida. I'm surprised the conservatives haven't tried to ban Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet yet.
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Aw come on Buzz, Juliette was almost 14 and Romeo was flirting with 16.
Young love. My first serious relationship with a girl I was crazy about was when I was 16 and she was 14 - lasted for years.
Different time period completely.
Romeo would be arrested, charged, sentenced to a year in juvie, then transferred to a real prison, and have to register as a sex offender today.
Also, wasn't the average life expectancy something like 30 max back then?
Excellent
Awesome.
Time for all the Bibles to be brought back as well.
Excellent.
I’m sure you would have no problem finding a Bible in a public library.
The Bible remains one of the most challenged books in public libraries.
Removed at some time from school districts as noted above.
The point being, this knife cuts both ways. I’ve said it here many times. Free speech is easy, until you disagree with it.
Banning books in all but the most extreme cases is wrong but lots of hypocrites out there will tell try to tell you different.
as long as the bible stays in the fiction section, I've got no problem with it being in a library.
Nah, you’ve gotten nothing to say about it.
Too bad ........
Sorry but that shelf is taken up by Conservapedia which I think belongs on the comedy shelf, their take on Canada is a hoot ... and anyhoot, my fingerprints are all over the history shelf so I'm biased.
The books are being challenged, not banned, according to your links. In Texas (big surprise), they apparently have some policy that requires books be removed while a challenge is reviewed. Sounds like somebody got wise and decided to show them how that policy can be used against books they like. Lesson learned? I doubt it.
Challenged .... banned ..... same thing. Depends on who is in charge of deciding which it is.
If you can’t see that, your biases are showing .....
Oh my lord . . .
According to the Dewey Decimal System it's a reference book so it goes where the encyclopedias and other reference materials go
What about him?
OK so any book that has the "N" word must stay on the shelves and teachers can assign those books as mandatory reading, such as "Huck Finn"
People really need to try and get over this urge to ban Mark Twain.
BTW, a lot of things in school are mandatory that maybe students or parents don’t like. Schools aren’t there to teach only the things that make people comfortable.
my 4th grade teacher from texas read our class the original "N" word version back in the 60's, right before she lost her job...
So, the only remaining recourse is the 'gun control' approach of closing the libraries.
Because libraries are killing people?
That's only an excuse. You do know that the government spends a lot of money training people to kill? The United States government has the best trained and most capable killers on the planet. And the government brags about it.
So all that 'CRT' indoctrination hasn't gone to waste after all?
It’s absurd that we keep having to go to court to remind regressive self-righteous government types that people have rights and that things like the First Amendment exist.
You want to ban books in your private library? Go right ahead. Public access to expression in a public library means you have to actually pay attention to the Constitution.
If a book in the library offends you, then don’t read it. But you don’t have the right to hide it from other people who might want to read it.
Perfectly stated.
About time a judge used the First Amendment