A new Arkansas state law that could send librarians and booksellers to prison was challenged Friday in a federal lawsuit filed by libraries, independent bookstores and publishers that say that the bill is unconstitutional.
The suit comes as states and counties across the country increasingly restrict the availability of certain types of textbooks, and as those who oppose such regulations find more ways to push back.
The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, says the law “forces bookstores and libraries to self-censor in a manner contrary to their primary purpose. “
The Arkansas law, which is set to go into effect in August, requires any material that may be “harmful” to minors, including books, magazines and movies, to be kept in a separate, “adults only” area. that place.
Adam Webb, the executive director of the Garland County Library in Hot Springs, Ark., said Friday that the law puts librarians in an impossible situation.
“They’re doing this catch-22,” said Webb, who is one of the plaintiffs. “Either I obey the law but violate the constitutional rights of my patrons, or I uphold the constitutional rights of my patrons and possibly be charged with a crime.”
The lawsuit says many libraries and bookstores don’t have room for such an area, and that a separate area would damage materials and make it more difficult for adults with child dragged to access it. The law also creates a process for challenging materials that, according to the complaint, favors those who want to remove the books.
Importantly, the law also ends a safeguard for librarians and teachers that shields them from prosecution if they use educational materials or provide books that are objectionable to others. It also makes it a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in prison, for librarians and booksellers to distribute a “harmful substance” to a minor.
“This is a case that has far-reaching implications for not only the ability of people to access materials in Arkansas libraries, but for the general fundamental principles of our democracy,” said Skye Perryman. , the chief executive of Democracy Forward, which is representing the Arkansas Library Association in the lawsuit. “If this law is enacted, librarians could face prison time for failing to take actions that clearly violate the US Constitution and the Arkansas Constitution.”
Allison Hill, the chief executive of the American Booksellers Association, a trade organization for independent bookstores that also joined the suit, said the new law could have a chilling effect and lead to a “a Wild West where anyone can object to any book and a bookseller can have a criminal record.”
State Sen. Dan Sullivan, who sponsored the bill, defended the law in an opinion piece in The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in May.
“We will not exempt pharmacists from drug trafficking laws, slaughterhouses from animal cruelty laws and doctors from sexual assault laws,” he wrote. “But before my bill, teachers and librarians, who are closest to our children, were 100 percent legally free to give children obscene material in their jobs.”
The lawsuit is the latest sign that organized opposition is building among opponents of the book’s ban. According to the American Library Association, there will be more efforts to remove books from libraries in 2022 than on record, and almost twice as many as last year.
An April report from the free speech organization PEN America found 4,000 instances of book removals since the group began tracking them in July 2021. Most of the challenged books have themes and characters of LGBTQ, or address race and racism.
Both organizations attributed the spike to the growing influence of conservative organizations such as Moms for Liberty and Utah Parents United, which lobbied for the book’s removal at school board meetings and on social media. . They also cite a growing number of state laws that limit the types of books that can be used in libraries and schools, and in some cases librarians and teachers are vulnerable to criminal prosecution.
But free speech organizations, publishers, library groups and residents sought to counter the book bans with lawsuits, and laws, of their own.
Last week, a group of parents in Crawford, Ark., sued over the county’s policy of removing LGBTQ-themed books from the children’s library section and placing them in a separate section that “ social”.
In Illinois, the legislature recently passed a bill, which is expected to be signed by Gov. JB Pritzker, which would ban libraries from removing books and withhold funding from libraries that refuse to adopt an anti-book ban policy.
PEN America and the nation’s largest publisher, Penguin Random House, recently filed a lawsuit against the Escambia County school district in Florida, arguing that the district violated students’ First Amendment Rights by to limit their access to books on certain subjects.
On Friday, the Association of American Publishers and six publishing companies filed a brief supporting a group of Llano, Texas, residents who are suing county and library officials for removing the books, which argued that the restrictions were unconstitutional and violated citizens’ First Amendment rights. rights.
“Any suppression of views or content is dangerous to publishing,” said Maria Pallante, the president and chief executive of the Association of American Publishers, which also joined the lawsuit challenging the Arkansas law. “It’s OK to have strong opinions about a book, but it’s not OK to restrict access to other people through the weight of the state.”
