Supreme Court refuses to hear Texas book ban appeal in case watched by free speech groups

America Supreme Court On Monday, Texas declined to hear an appeal of a free speech case that allowed local officials to remove books deemed offensive from public libraries.

The case stems from a 2022 lawsuit filed by a group of rural Llano County residents over the removal from the public library of more than a dozen books related to sex, race and gender topics, as well as humorously touching on topics such as flatulence.

A lower federal appeals court had ruled that removing the books did not violate constitutional free speech protections.

Publishers and librarians across the country were keeping a close eye on this matter. The Supreme Court’s decision not to consider the case was criticized by freedom of expression rights groups.

The Texas case has already been used to ban books in other areas of the country, said Eli Brinkley, staff attorney for US Free Expression Programs at PEN America.

Brinkley said, “Leaving the Fifth Circuit’s decision in place destroys the most fundamental principles of free speech and allows state and local governments to exert ideological control over people with impunity. The government has no place in telling people what they can and can’t read.”

Sam Helmick, President of American Library Associationsaid that the Supreme Court’s decision not to consider the case “threatens to transform public libraries into centers of education rather than preserving them as centers of open inquiry, undermining the First Amendment right to read free from viewpoint-based censorship.”

The Texas case began when a group of residents asked the county library commission to remove a group of books from circulation. The local commission ordered librarians to comply, and a separate group of residents sued to keep the books on the shelves.

Llano County, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of the Texas capital AustinThe population is approximately 20,000. It is mostly white and conservative, with strong ties to agriculture and deer hunting.

The books whose titles were originally ordered to be removed included Isabel Wilkerson’s “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent”; “They Called Themselves the KKK: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti; “In the Night Kitchen” by Maurice Sendak; “It’s Perfectly Normal: Body Changes, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health” by Robbie H. Harris; and “Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen” by Jazz Jennings.

Other titles include “Larry the Farting Leprechaun” and “My Butt is So Noisy!”, written by Jane Bexley. By Don McMillan.

A federal judge ordered the county to restore some of the books in 2023, but that decision was overturned earlier this year by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Texas. louisiana And Mississippi.

The county at one point considered closing its public libraries rather than return the books to the shelves following the federal judge’s initial order.

In its order on May 23, the majority opinion of the appeals court said that a decision to remove a book from a library shelf is not a book ban.

The appeals court opinion stated, “Nobody is banning (or burning) books. If a frustrated patron can’t find a book in the library, he can order it online, buy it from a bookstore, or borrow it from a friend.”

Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham, the county’s ranking official, did not immediately respond to an email sent to his office seeking comment.

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Hillel Italie contributed from New York City.