Group challenges Arkansas law that criminalizes access to some books

A new state law in Arkansas that could send librarians and booksellers to jail was challenged Friday in a federal lawsuit brought by libraries, independent bookstores and publishers who said the legislation was unconstitutional.

The lawsuit comes as states and provinces across the country are increasingly restricting the availability of certain types of books, and as those who oppose such regulations are finding more and more ways to push back.

The complaintwhich was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, said the law “forces bookstores and libraries to self-censor in a manner inconsistent with their core purposes.”

The Arkansas law, which is expected to go into effect in August, requires all materials that could be “harmful” to minors, including books, magazines and movies, to be locked in a separate “adults-only” area.

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 created this catch-22,” said Webb, who is one of the plaintiffs. “Either I comply with the law but violate the constitutional rights of my patrons, or I enforce the constitutional rights of my patrons and may be charged with a crime.”

The lawsuit said many libraries and bookstores don’t have room for such a space, and that a separate space would stigmatize the materials and make it harder for adults with children in tow to access them. The law also creates a process for challenging material that, according to the complaint, favors those who want books removed.

Crucially, the law also ends protections for librarians and educators that protect them from prosecution if they use educational materials or provide books that some may find offensive. It also makes it a felony, punishable by up to a year in prison, for librarians and booksellers to distribute a “harmful item” to a minor.

“This is a matter that has broad implications not only for people’s ability to access materials in libraries in Arkansas, but also for the overall fundamental principles of our democracy,” said Skye Perryman, the CEO of Democracy Forward, representing the Arkansas Library Association in the lawsuit. “If this law were to go into effect, librarians could be jailed for not taking actions that would flagrantly violate the U.S. Constitution and the Arkansas Constitution.”

Allison Hill, the CEO of the American Booksellers Association, a trade organization for independent bookstores who also joined the lawsuit, said the new law could have a chilling effect and lead to a “Wild West where anyone can object against any book and a bookseller could end up with a criminal record.

State Senator Dan Sullivan, who sponsored the bill, defended the bill an opinion piece in The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in May.

“We do not exempt pharmacists from drug trafficking laws, slaughterhouses from animal cruelty laws, and doctors from sexual assault laws,” he wrote. “But on my account, teachers and librarians, who are closest to our children, were 100 percent legally free to give children obscene material at work.”

The lawsuit is the latest sign that organized opposition is growing among those opposed to book bans. According to the American Library Association, there will be more attempts to remove books from libraries in 2022 than ever before, and nearly twice as many as in the previous year.

An April report from the free speech organization PEN America found 4,000 book takedowns since the group began tracking them in July 2021. Most of the books challenged contain LGBTQ themes and characters, or deal with 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 have lobbied for the removal of books at school board meetings and on social media. They also mentioned the growing number of state laws that restrict the types of books that can be available in libraries and schools, and in some cases leave librarians and teachers vulnerable to criminal prosecution.

But free speech organizations, publishers, library groups and residents are trying to counter book bans with lawsuits and their own laws.

Last week, a group of parents in Crawford, Ark., sued about the county’s policy of removing LGBTQ-themed books from the children’s section of libraries and placing them in a separate “social” section.

In Illinois, the legislature recently passed a bill, which Gov. JB Pritzker is expected to sign, that would ban libraries from removing books and withhold funding from libraries that refuse to adopt anti-book ban policies.

PEN America and the nation’s largest publisher, Penguin Random House, recently filed a lawsuit against Florida’s Escambia County school district, alleging that the district had violated students’ First Amendment rights by limiting their access to books on certain subjects. to limit.

On Friday, the Association of American Publishers and six publishers filed a lawsuit in support of a group of residents in Llano, Texas, who sued county and library officials for removing books, arguing that the bans were unconstitutional and violated with the citizen’s first amendment. rights.

“Any suppression of views or content is dangerous for publishers,” said Maria Pallante, the president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, which also joined the lawsuit against the law in Arkansas. “It’s okay to have strong opinions about a book, but not to limit other people’s access by the weight of the state.”