Librarians, Publishers, Bookstores Join Lawsuit Over Arkansas Library 'Obscenity' Law
By: PublishersWeekly. com
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Some 17 plaintiffs—including the ALA's Freedom to Read Foundation, the Association of American Publishers, the American Booksellers Association, and the Authors Guild—will file a federal lawsuit over a recently passed law in Arkansas, Act 372 of 2023 (also known as SB 81), which exposes librarians to criminal liability for making allegedly "obscene" books available to minors.
According to a report in the Arkansas Advocate, news of the suit comes after the Central Arkansas Library System board of directors voted on May 25 to proceed with the litigation. At press time, the suit had yet to be filed.
In a statement to PW, ALA officials confirmed their participation in the suit. "The American Library Association is pleased that the Freedom to Read Foundation, our First Amendment legal defense arm, and our state affiliate, the Arkansas Library Association, are participating in the lawsuit to vindicate Arkansas residents' freedom to read," ALA president Lessa Kanani'opua Pelayo-Lozada told PW. "The government has no place in deciding what books people can borrow or buy."
The law in question, which was signed by governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders on March 31 and is set to take effect on August 1, removes an exemption from prosecution for school and public libraries and would empower virtually anyone to challenge the appropriateness of library materials in Arkansas. Library staff found to have "knowingly" distributed or facilitating the distribution of allegedly obscene material to a minor—defined as anyone under 18—would be open to a potential felony charge.
According to the Arkansas Advocate, the 17 plaintiffs so far include:
- Central Arkansas Library System
- Fayetteville Public Library
- The Eureka Springs Carnegie Public Library
- Garland County Library executive director Adam Webb
- CALS executive director Nate Coulter
- Arkansas Library Association
- Advocates for All Arkansas Libraries
- The Authors Guild
- The American Booksellers' Association
- The Association of American Publishers
- The Freedom to Read Foundation
- The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
- WordsWorth Books (an independent bookstore in Little Rock)
- Pearl's Books (an independent bookstore in Fayetteville)
- Hayden Kirby (a 17-year-old CALS patron and a student at Little Rock Central High School
- Jennie Kirby (Hayden's mother)
- Olivia Farrell (an adult CALS patron)
The impending lawsuit in Arkansas is the latest in an escalating legal offensive being waged by freedom to read advocates in response to the ongoing surge in book bans and legislative restrictions nationwide.
In February, the ACLU joined with librarians in Missouri to file a federal suit over Senate Bill 775, a school library obscenity law that opponents say forces librarians to censor their collections under the "threat of arbitrary enforcement of imprisonment or fines."
In March, library advocates in Llano County, Texas, won an injunction to reinstate banned titles at their local public library and to stop future bans, with federal judge Robert Pitman holding that the library board infringed the constitutional rights of library users by unilaterally removing books it deemed inappropriate.
"The impending lawsuit in Arkansas is the latest in an escalating legal offensive being waged by freedom to read advocates..."
And most encouragingly, advocates say, recent efforts include the increasing participation of the publishing industry. News of the AAP, ABA, and Authors Guild joining the forthcoming suit in Arkansas comes after PEN America and Penguin Random House joined forces with a group of authors and parents to sue school administrators in Escambia County, Florida, over the removal of books from school libraries.
The impending suit in Arkansas looms as a crucial test. Similar library "obscenity" bills have passed in other states this year, though some been vetoed—including in Idaho, where Republican governor Brad Little rejected HB 314, the so-called Children's School and Library Protection Act of 2023, which would have empowered parents to seek $2,500 rewards from libraries for making supposedly inappropriate materials available to minors. In his veto statement, Little said that the legislation would have imposed "sweeping, blanket assumptions on materials that could be determined as 'harmful to minors' in a local library," and would have forced "one interpretation of that phrase onto all the patrons of the library."
Also this week, lawmakers in Texas passed a bill that could also wind up in the courts. House Bill 900, which now heads to governor Greg Abbott's desk, would regulate so-called "sexually explicit" books in school libraries and would require publishers and vendors to assign ratings based on sexual content. "Books with a 'sexually explicit' rating would be removed from library bookshelves," reports the Texas Tribune. "And students who want to check out books with a 'sexually relevant' rating would have to get parental permission first."
In April, a report from PEN America, Banned in the USA: State Laws Supercharge Book Suppression in Schools, said that state laws like those in Texas and Arkansas were a "significant factor" driving book bans across the nation. "The heavy-handed tactics of state legislators are mandating book bans, plain and simple," said Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, in a release announcing the new report. "The numbers don't lie, and they reveal a relentless crusade to constrict children's freedom to read."
This is a developing story.
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I'm glad to see some body fighting back
A plaintiff often has to show harm before going to court.
DO you think these plaintiffs have a case?
Absolutely. I've been fighting this kind of censorship since the '80s when I saw it first hand.
Thank-you. I didn't understand your first comment. I'm waiting for a zoom meeting to start and my brain is not functioning
I get it. I was saying there is a process and it takes time for the process to play out. No worries.
got it! Thanks!
I'm sick to death of the rwnj thumpers warped version of the 1st amendment.
It sure seems like the 2nd amendment is the only one they care about. They would be happy to get rid of the rest. They don't seem to understand that you cannot cherry-pick the Constitution. It's not the Bible.
As usual, it's impossible to know whether they don't know any better... or are being purposefully obtuse.
They know better and trump knows he lost.
another good one Stevie
Of course. It has become standard procedure to deny the obvious. By denying everything, they imagine that others will not be able to discern which they actually believe.
They do make it confusing to determine what their beliefs are
Alternatively, they don't actually believe anything at all.
That is on purpose. Why? Because: what conservatives believe in is what what they believe in. Yes, the statement is circular. Conservatives (some) have turned their backs to face liberals. That is, they only consult within their own circles (selves) to find out answers and then share the results with the rest of us.
Why?
Because they do not value liberal opinions or points of view.
This is one of a number of lawsuits nationwide. The more the merrier.
This is another case of not learning from the past. It wasn't all that long ago the "Moral Majority" were on the losing end of the same 1st Amend legal arguments.
keep draining their bank accounts ...
blah, blah, blah, amen.
friends, the next 2 offerings will go towards paying off that evil class action judgement against our church, please give generously ...
I agree. Let's see if conservatives can "own" the Constitution! Because if they can do that, then the constitution will demonstrate itself to being a partisan document in desperate need of change!
they selectively edit it just like they do the bible.
Seems like they took it a step beyond when they added public libraries.
They take a step beyond when they think they are more "moral" than everyone else.
Yeah...that's it right there. It's their damn smugness thinking that they are morally superior to everyone else and they WILL have their way and you're gonna LIKE it
They think they get to decide what's moral all while bitching about some liberal nanny state. AND they get to talk up 'parental rights' while taking away actual parental rights.
Always figured obscenity was in the eye of the beholder.
And here I can safely say this, there are 'things' in the Bible that pastors/teachers/preachers will not lecture on because it will make their congregations uncomfortable and no, it is not all about the sensuality in the Bible. There is the violence and corruption that reeks to 'high heaven.' And yet, the 'circular thinkers' will not dream of pulling the "good book" down off its pedestal! Calling it the way I see it!
Does this mean we can now go into religious, charter and private schools and take away books there? Or is it only for public...
The first thing I'm doing is taking out those cheesy children's Bibles. Talk about propaganda! And it's all pictures so the kids don't have to read!
Especially pop-up books. Those are scary.
DeSantis now has ALL students on the voucher system in Florida, with $8,500 for each student. This, IMO is going to turn into a disaster for Florida.
All of them?
What are they going to do with the public school system?
I read a little last night about the woman that they are investigating for showing a Disney movie. They showed some stats, I will have to try to find it, that there are now shortages in staff and like 60k positions open in the state.
They are also now demanding that one woman step down from her position as administrator.
Yes, all of them and as far as the public school system goes I have no idea what is in store for them.
The teacher that showed the Disney movie is resigning and yes Florida is short 60k teachers plus Florida ranks near the rock bottom in average teacher pay.
No reason at all to teach in Florida.
Ya know what's gonna happen? Florida is gonna end up with no credential teachers and they are gonna have to hire people with no teaching skills at all.
So glad my son is getting divorced and getting orders out of there. I'm glad he didn;t have kids that might have ended up on the FLA school system
In a small way that has already happened.
Florida law lets veterans teach without degrees, not their spouses
.
It sounds like a good program. At least they have to have some college credits to apply for a temporary teaching certificate but after 5 years they have to have their Bachelor's or their cert doesn't get renewed
I don't know if this program has done any good. Florida has lost a lot teachers in the past couple of years and I'm sure that we are going to lose many more over this crazy RW bullshit.
The federal government will take Florida/DeSantis to court sooner or later. One state can not set the national standard of education. Or, well, the federal government can pull funding and place penalties and fines on non-conformity with federal education policy/law.
Don't take this the wrong way, but there in action is the double-edged sword that is the MAGA brand. What MAGA gives with one hand. . .it takes back with its insane other hand!
Cool! Could we ban religious works masquerading as history?
I think the bible has some porn in there.
Who is "we", Bob
Us but not you
What giggles said
LOL
A whole lot of "begetting" going on (begetting just sounds dirty).
Though we believers tend to ignore it, that is we look over it, there is definitely some obscenity (and queasiness) in the Bible. For example: King Saul tells David to bring foreskins (from other men's nether regions (in mass quantities) who will not part with their 'material' willingly.)
Of course, Saul did not detail which men exactly to take the skins off! So it was a whimsical and unprovoked attack on likely unsuspecting men who did not even know they were being hunted (without a cause), but you won't learn much about this from the "circular" conservatives who labor long, far, and wide to remove other books about people living and dying to be free from varying states of oppression today!
Can we just call it what it is: There are people in this country who have been serious dividers and fraudsters on the lives of minorities, women, homosexuals, "the like," and they do not intend to let people like us live in peace (as long as they have a say about it)!
who would subject their kids to a book featuring a 1000+ year long incestuous family orgy.