Leave librarians alone!
U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks—an
appointee of former President Barack Obama—issued a preliminary injunction against
two sections of Act 372 (also known
as S.B. 81), a censorship bill introduced by Arkansas state Sen. Dan Sullivan
(R-20), passed by the Republican-controlled state Legislature, and signed into law by
GOP Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in March.
The law—which would have gone into effect
on Tuesday—makes it a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison
to provide to a minor material "that to the average person, applying
contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a
whole appeals to prurient interest."
The legislation also allows parents and
legal guardians to access minors' library records.
Brooks' temporary injunction against Act
372 applies to Section 3—which criminalizes librarians and booksellers for
providing access to materials deemed "harmful to minors"—and Section
5, which requires libraries to establish material review processes and empowers
courts to compel libraries to remove materials that may be protected by the
First Amendment.
"If merely having a book accessible on the shelf where a minor can reach it will potentially subject librarians and booksellers to criminal penalties, such books may simply be removed," Brooks wrote in his 49-page ruling.
"As a result, these patrons claim
their First Amendment right to access non-obscene (i.e., constitutionally
protected) reading material will be dramatically curtailed."
In May, the Central Arkansas Library System
(CALS) led a lawsuit against the legislation. CALS executive director Nate
Coulter said he is "extremely pleased and gratified" by Brooks'
ruling.
"I'm relieved that for now the dark
cloud that was hanging over CALS' librarians has lifted—they will not be
threatened with jail for making books available to our patrons,"
Coulter told the Arkansas
Advocate.
ACLU of Arkansas Executive Director Holly
Dickson also welcomed the ruling, saying in a statement that "we commend
the court's decision to stop the enforcement of Sections 3 and 5 of Act 372,
which would have jeopardized the essential First Amendment rights of all
residents of Arkansas."
"It's regrettable that we even have to
question whether our constitutional rights are still respected today,"
Dickson added. "The question we had to ask was, do Arkansans still legally
have access to reading materials? Luckily, the judicial system has once again
defended our highly valued liberties."
Earlier this year, the American Library
Association said that a
record-breaking 2,571 unique titles were challenged by people or groups seeking
bans in 2022, a 38% increase from the previous year.