Case: 23-50224 Document: 105-1 Page: 1 Date Filed: 06/02/2023
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`No. 23-50224
`United States Court of Appeals
`for the
`Fifth Circuit
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`
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`LEILA GREEN LITTLE, et al.,
`Plaintiffs-Appellees,
`
`v.
`LLANO COUNTY, et al.,
`Defendants-Appellants.
`
`On appeal from the United States District Court
`for the Western District of Texas
`Honorable Robert L. Pitman Presiding
`BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE
`FOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND EXPRESSION
`IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS-APPELLEES AND
`AFFIRMANCE
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`ROBERT CORN-REVERE*
`JT MORRIS
`FOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL
`RIGHTS AND EXPRESSION
`700 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE
`Suite 340
`Washington, DC 20003
`(215) 717-3473
`bob.corn-revere@thefire.org
`jt.morris@thefire.org
`
`*Counsel of Record
`
`Attorneys for Amicus Curiae Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
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`CERTIFICATE OF INTERESTED PERSONS AND CORPORATE
`DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
`The undersigned counsel of record certifies that the following listed
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`persons are entities as described in Local Rule 29.2 have an interest in
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`the outcome of this case. These representations are made in order that
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`the judges of this court may evaluate possible disqualification or recusal.
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`Person or Entity
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`Connection to Case
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`Foundation for Individual
`Rights and Expression
`(FIRE)
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`Robert Corn-Revere
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`JT Morris
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`Amicus curiae
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`Counsel to amicus FIRE
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`Counsel to amicus FIRE
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`Pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 26.1, counsel for
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`amicus certifies that (1) amicus does not have any parent corporations,
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`and (2) no publicly held companies hold 10% or more of the stock or
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`ownership interest in amicus.
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`/s/ Robert Corn-Revere
`June 2, 2023
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`TABLE OF CONTENTS
`
`CERTIFICATE OF INTERESTED PERSONS AND
`CORPORATE DISCLOSURE STATEMENT ........................................... ii
`TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ...................................................................... v
`INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE ........................................................... 1
`SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT ................................................................... 2
`BACKGROUND ........................................................................................ 5
`A. Book Bans and the Culture War ............................................. 5
`B.
`The Culture War Comes to Llano County ............................ 11
`ARGUMENT ........................................................................................... 13
`I.
`Banning Books Ignores the Lessons of History and is
`Incompatible with our National Commitment to Free
`Expression. ..................................................................................... 13
`A. Censors have sought to ban books and eliminate
`ideas for centuries. ................................................................ 13
`B. Banning books is antithetical to the Founders’
`understanding that the free exchange of ideas is
`necessary for an informed citizenry. ..................................... 16
`The long road to freedom. ..................................................... 20
`C.
`II. The First Amendment Prohibits
`the Arbitrary
`Viewpoint-Based Removal of Books From Public
`Libraries. ........................................................................................ 23
`A.
`The First Amendment limits arbitrary political
`control of libraries. ................................................................ 25
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`B.
`
`The First Amendment protects the right to receive
`information and ideas. .......................................................... 30
`CONCLUSION ........................................................................................ 33
`CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE ................................................................ 35
`CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE WITH TYPE-VOLUME LIMIT .... 36
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`TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
`Cases Page(s)
`Abrams v. United States,
`250 U.S. 616 (1919) .............................................................................. 13
`Ark. Educ. Television Comm’n v. Forbes,
`523 U.S. 666 (1998) ........................................................................ 27, 28
`Baumgartner v. United States,
`322 U.S. 665 (1944) .............................................................................. 31
`Bd. of Educ., Island Trees Union Free Sch. Dist.
`No. 26 v. Pico,
`457 U.S. 853 (1982) .................................................................... 3, 27, 30
`Bolger v. Youngs Drug Prods. Corp.,
`463 U.S. 60 (1983) ................................................................................ 32
`Brown v. Ent. Merchs. Ass’n,
`564 U.S. 786 (2011) ........................................................................ 32, 33
`Butler v. Michigan,
`352 U.S. 380 (1957) .............................................................................. 32
`Campbell v. St. Tammany Parish Sch. Bd.,
`64 F.3d 184 (5th Cir. 1995) .................................................. 3, 27, 30, 33
`Chiras v. Miller,
`432 F.3d 606 (5th Cir. 2005) .................................................... 26, 27, 29
`Cohen v. California,
`403 U.S. 15 (1971) ................................................................................ 31
`Community-Service Broad. of Mid-America, Inc. v. FCC,
`593 F.2d 1102 (D.C. Cir. 1978) ............................................................. 29
`FCC v. League of Women Voters of Cal.,
`468 U.S. 364 (1984) .............................................................................. 28
`
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`Forsyth Cnty. v. Nationalist Movement,
`505 U.S. 123 (1992) .............................................................................. 32
`Hustler Magazine v. Falwell,
`485 U.S. 46 (1988) ................................................................................ 31
`In re: A Court of Mist & Fury,
`Case No. CL22-1984 (Va. Beach Cir. Ct., Aug. 30, 2022) .................... 12
`In re: Gender Queer, A Memoir,
`Case No. CL22-1985 (Va. Beach Cir. Ct., Aug. 30, 2022) .................... 11
`Kincaid v. Gibson,
`236 F.3d 342 (6th Cir. 2001) ................................................................ 28
`Kleindienst v. Mandel,
`408 U.S. 753 (1972) .............................................................................. 31
`Legal Servs. Corp. v. Velazquez,
`531 U.S. 533 (2000) .................................................................... 5, 24, 29
`Little v. Llano Cnty., No. 1:22-CV-424-RP,
`2023 WL 2731089 (W.D. Tex. Mar. 30, 2023) ................................ 11, 12
`Papish v. Bd. of Curators of Univ. of Mo.,
`410 U.S. 667 (1973) .............................................................................. 31
`Perry Educ. Ass’n v. Perry Local Educators’ Ass’n,
`460 U.S. 37 (1983) ................................................................................ 24
`Pleasant Grove City v. Summum,
`555 U.S. 460 (2009) .............................................................................. 24
`Rankin v. McPherson,
`483 U.S. 378 (1987) .............................................................................. 31
`Roth v. United States,
`354 U.S. 476 (1957) .............................................................................. 23
`Rust v. Sullivan,
`500 U.S. 173 (1991) .............................................................................. 24
`
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`Case: 23-50224 Document: 105-1 Page: 7 Date Filed: 06/02/2023
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`Snyder v. Phelps,
`562 U.S. 443 (2011) .............................................................................. 31
`Stanley v. Georgia,
`394 U.S. 557 (1969) .......................................................................... 4, 30
`Stanley v. Magrath,
`719 F.2d 279 (8th Cir. 1983) ................................................................ 28
`Sund v. City of Wichita Falls, Tex.,
`121 F. Supp. 2d 530 (N.D. Tex. 2000) .............................................. 3, 30
`Texas v. Johnson,
`491 U.S. 397 (1989). ......................................................................... 4, 31
`United States v. Amer. Libr. Ass’n,
`539 U.S. 194 (2003) ........................................................................ 27, 30
`United States v. One Book Called “Ulysses”,
`5 F. Supp. 182 (S.D.N.Y. 1933) ............................................................ 22
`West Virginia State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette,
`319 U.S. 624 (1943) .............................................................. 2, 13, 30, 32
`Whitney v. California,
`274 U.S. 357 (1927) .............................................................................. 23
`Widmar v. Vincent,
`454 U.S. 263, (1981) ............................................................................. 25
`Wollschlaeger v. Governor,
`848 F.3d 1293 (11th Cir. 2017) ............................................................ 32
`Statutes
`13 Tex. Admin. Code § 2.4 ....................................................... 3, 25, 26, 30
`47 U.S.C. § 396(a) .................................................................................... 27
`47 U.S.C. § 398(c) .................................................................................... 27
`U.S. Const. amend. I ................................................................................. 4
`
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`Case: 23-50224 Document: 105-1 Page: 8 Date Filed: 06/02/2023
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`Other Authorities
`Alexandra Alter & Elizabeth A. Harris, Attempts to Ban
`Books Doubled in 2022, N.Y. Times (Mar. 23, 2023) ............................. 6
`Allison Pries, Lawmakers want to expel Huckleberry Finn
`from N.J. schools, NJ.com (Mar. 23, 2019) ............................................ 9
`Amy Sohn, The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, &
`Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age (2021) ............................................... 21
`Andrew Lapin, Not just ‘Maus’: A Missouri school district
`removed several Holocaust history books, too, Jewish
`Telegraphic Agency (Nov. 16, 2022) ....................................................... 8
`Anne Lyon Haight & Chandler B. Grannis, Banned Books:
`387 B.C. to 1978 A.D. (1978) ............................................................ 9, 15
`Annie Gowen, Censorship battles’ new frontier: Your public
`library, Wash. Post (Apr. 17, 2022)........................................................ 7
`Ashley White, Louisiana attorney general creates ‘protecting
`minors’ tip line to report library books, Daily Advertiser
`(Dec. 1, 2022) .......................................................................................... 7
`Banned & Challenged Classics, Am. Libr. Assoc. .................................. 10
`Banned: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, PBS (Sept. 2017) ................... 9
`Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin
`Franklin ................................................................................................ 18
`Bill Chappell, A Texas lawmaker is targeting 850 books that
`he says could make students feel uneasy, Nat’l Pub. Radio
`(Oct. 10, 2021)......................................................................................... 7
`Book Burning, Holocaust Encyclopedia .................................................. 16
`Doug Linder, The Trial of John Peter Zenger: An Account
`(2001) .................................................................................................... 19
`
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`Eesha Pendharkar, A School Librarian Pushes Back on
`Censorship and Gets Death Threats and Online
`Harassment, Ed. Week (Sept. 22, 2022) ................................................ 8
`Eesha Pendharkar, Why the Bible Is Getting Pulled Off
`School Bookshelves, Ed. Week (Dec. 15, 2022) .................................... 33
`Eric Berkowitz, Dangerous Ideas: A Brief History of
`Censorship in the West, from the Ancients to Fake News
`(2021) .............................................................................................. 14, 20
`Erin Blakemore, The history of book bans—and their
`changing targets—in the U.S., Nat’l Geographic (Apr. 24,
`2023) ..................................................................................................... 20
`Frederick Schauer, Principles, Institutions and the First
`Amendment, 112 Harv. L. Rev. 84 (1998) ............................................ 24
`Hannah Allam, Culture war in the stacks: Librarians
`marshal against rising book bans, Wash. Post (Mar. 4,
`2023) ....................................................................................................... 5
`Hannah Marcus, Escaping the Index of Prohibited Books,
`Lapham’s Q. (Sept. 30, 2020) ............................................................... 15
`Hannah Natanson, School librarians face a new penalty in
`the banned-book wars: Prison, Wash. Post (May 18, 2023) ................... 8
`Hans J. Hillerbrand, On Book Burnings and Book Burners:
`Reflections on the Power (And Powerlessness) of Ideas,
`74 J. Am. Acad. Religion, no. 3 (Sept. 2006) .................................. 14, 15
`Heinrich Heine, Almansor ...................................................................... 16
`Hillel Italie, Book ban attempts hit record high in 2022,
`library org says, Associated Press (Mar. 23, 2023) ................................ 6
`History of the Libr. of Congress, Libr. of Congress ........................... 17, 19
`History, Libr. Co. of Phila ....................................................................... 17
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`Case: 23-50224 Document: 105-1 Page: 10 Date Filed: 06/02/2023
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`Jane Henderson, Annual banned book list shows record
`attempts at censorship in 2022, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
`(Apr. 24, 2023) ........................................................................................ 6
`Jefferson’s Libr., Libr. of Congress ......................................................... 19
`Jeffrey Fleishman, School librarians vilified as the ‘arm of
`Satan’ in book-banning wars, L.A. Times (Jan. 27, 2023) .................... 8
`Jerry Mitchell & Ann Marie Cunningham, Mississippi’s Own
`Angie Thomas: Her Most Popular Book Is Missing from
`Library Shelves, Miss. Today (Mar. 16, 2023) ....................................... 7
`Jessica Villagomez, Chicago Public Library removing 6 Dr.
`Seuss books from the shelves while it determines long-term
`options, Chi. Trib. (Mar. 8, 2021) ......................................................... 10
`Joanna Weiss, ‘Are You There, God?’ Reminds Us Why Books
`Are Still Banned, Even in the Digital Age, Politico (Apr. 29,
`2023) ..................................................................................................... 33
`John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding ................... 17
`John Milton, Areopagitica ....................................................................... 16
`John O. McGinnis, The Once and Future Property-Based
`Vision of the First Amendment, 63 U. Chi. L. Rev. 49 (1996) ............. 17
`John S. Tanner & Justin Collings, How Adams and Jefferson
`Read Milton and Milton Read Them, 40 Milton Q., no. 3
`(2006) .................................................................................................... 17
`Kendall Tietz, Anne Frank novel banned in Florida school
`over ‘sexually explicit’ content: ‘Minimization of the
`Holocaust’, Fox News (Apr. 13, 2013) .................................................... 8
`Larissa Ransom, On this day in 302 Diocletian issued his
`edict on Manicheanism, Mint Imperials (Mar. 31, 2015) .................... 14
`Letter from James Madison to W.T. Barry, National Archives
`(Aug. 4, 1822) ........................................................................................ 18
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`Case: 23-50224 Document: 105-1 Page: 11 Date Filed: 06/02/2023
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`Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, National
`Archives (June 10, 1815) ...................................................................... 19
`Michael Kent Curtis, The 1859 Crisis Over Hinton Helper’s
`Book, The Impending Crisis: Free Speech, Slavery, and
`Some Light on the Meaning of the First Section of the
`Fourteenth Amendment, 68 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 1113 (1993) ................ 21
`Michael Taylor, What Not to Read: Book Censorship in Early
`Modern Europe, College of University Libraries and
`Learning Sciences News (Sept. 26, 2017) ............................................ 15
`Minnesota high school bans Steinbeck, Watson novellas,
`Wash. Times (Dec. 24, 2020) ................................................................ 10
`Modern History Sourcebook: Index librorum prohibitorum,
`1557-1966, Fordham Univ. .................................................................. 15
`Morgan Phillips, Conservative youth organization offers
`students books banned by their school district, Fox News
`(Dec. 11, 2020) ...................................................................................... 10
`Randall P. Bezanson & William G. Buss, The Many Faces of
`Government Speech, 86 Iowa L. Rev. 1377 (2001) ............................... 23
`Robert Corn-Revere, The Mind of the Censor and the Eye of
`the Beholder: The First Amendment and the Censor’s
`Dilemma (Cambridge Univ. Press 2021) ....................................... 21, 22
`The Perils of Reading: Samuel Green and Harriet Beecher
`Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Md. St. Archives ..................................... 20
`Tyler Kingkade, Conservative activists want to ban 400 books
`from a library — but they aren’t even on shelves, NBC
`News (Aug. 23, 2022) .............................................................................. 7
`Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds and Sayings: One
`Thousand Tales from Ancient Rome (Henry John Walker
`trans., Hackett Publishing 2004) ......................................................... 14
`WarGames (United Artists 1983) ............................................................ 33
`
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`INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE1
`The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is a
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`nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending the rights of
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`all Americans to the freedoms of speech, expression, and conscience—the
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`essential qualities of liberty. Founded in 1999 as the Foundation for
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`Individual Rights in Education, FIRE’s sole focus before the expansion of
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`our mission in 2022 was defending student and faculty rights at our
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`nation’s colleges and universities. Given our decades of experience
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`combating campus censorship—including vigilante book-burning2—
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`FIRE is all too familiar with the constitutional, pedagogical, and societal
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`problems presented by silencing minority or dissenting viewpoints. FIRE
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`strongly opposes attempts
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`to ban books based on personal
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`disagreement—both on- and off-campus. Informed by our unique history,
`
`FIRE has a keen interest in ensuring the censorship we fight on campus
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`does not take hold in society at large.
`
`
`1 No counsel for a party authored this brief in whole or part. Further, no person,
`other than amicus, its members, or its counsel contributed money intended to fund
`preparing or submitting this brief. All parties have consented to filing of this brief.
`2 Adam Steinbaugh, Author’s appearance at Georgia Southern University
`cancelled after students burn and shred books, Foundation for Individual Rights and
`Expression
`(Oct. 11, 2019), https://www.thefire.org/news/authors-appearance-
`georgia-southern-university-cancelled-after-students-burn-and-shred-books.
`1
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`SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT
`This case illustrates the danger of placing public libraries at the
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`mercy of political culture wars where the winners take all. Public
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`libraries are not playthings of politicians and political appointees. They
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`are, as governmental institutions, part of a system expressly predicated
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`on limiting state power, especially the power to control ideas. This is
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`because “[i]f there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it
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`is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in
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`politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.” West Virginia
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`State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 642 (1943). The Framers
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`would have been aghast at the abuse of governmental power to interfere
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`with public libraries.
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`While the government may choose to establish a library in the first
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`place (or not), that power does not authorize transient officeholders to
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`impose their personal political, religious, or philosophical preferences on
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`the community. As the Supreme Court has observed, libraries cannot be
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`run in “a narrowly partisan or political manner” because “[o]ur
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`Constitution does not permit the official suppression of ideas.” Bd. of
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`Educ., Island Trees Union Free Sch. Dist. No. 26 v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853,
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`
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`2
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`870–71 (1982) (plurality op.); Campbell v. St. Tammany Parish Sch. Bd.,
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`64 F.3d 184, 188–89 (5th Cir. 1995). Thus, “if a Democratic school board,
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`motivated by party affiliation, ordered the removal of all [library] books
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`written by or in favor of Republicans, few would doubt that the order
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`violated the constitutional rights of the students denied access to those
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`books.” Pico, 457 U.S. at 870–71.
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`This is even truer of community libraries like that in Llano
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`County. Sund v. City of Wichita Falls, Tex., 121 F. Supp. 2d 530, 548
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`(N.D. Tex. 2000). As guardians of the people’s freedom to read, public
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`libraries exist to preserve the widespread, nonpolitical dissemination of
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`knowledge. Texas public libraries are chartered to provide books
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`presenting the public “the widest diversity of views,” including “those
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`which are unorthodox and unpopular with the majority.” 13 Tex. Admin.
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`Code § 2.4(f)(1). Accordingly, librarians cannot use “their own political,
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`moral, or aesthetic views” for determining what books to publish or
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`circulate. Id. § 2.4(f)(2). Neither may library boards.
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`The status of public libraries as nonpolitical guardians of public
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`knowledge emerged out of hard lessons of history. Censorship was the
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`expected norm for millennia, and as civilizations rose and fell throughout
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`
`
`3
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`human history, one recurring theme was censorship of the works of
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`religious and political enemies—often with extreme prejudice. Our
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`Framers endeavored to end this vicious cycle, both in their words and
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`deeds. They adopted a Bill of Rights with a First Amendment guarantee
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`that “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or
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`of the press,” U.S. Const. amend. I, and created libraries to ensure
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`widespread dissemination of information on all subjects. To be sure, book
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`censorship continued after the Constitution’s ratification, but over time,
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`First Amendment jurisprudence arose from those controversies to
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`preclude the type of censorship now occurring in Llano County and
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`elsewhere.
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`For more than a half-century, the First Amendment’s protection of
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`our “right to receive information and ideas” has been “well established.”
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`Stanley v. Georgia, 394 U.S. 557, 564 (1969). In particular, a “bedrock
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`principle underlying the First Amendment” is that officials cannot limit
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`expression “simply because society finds [it] offensive or disagreeable.”
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`Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397, 414 (1989). These principles not only
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`limit the government’s ability to restrict speech generally, but they also
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`govern the institutions the government creates for purposes of
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`
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`4
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`Case: 23-50224 Document: 105-1 Page: 16 Date Filed: 06/02/2023
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`disseminating knowledge.
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`The government cannot create a repository of information designed
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`to include even unorthodox and unpopular views and dedicate it to
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`serving all members of the community, then leave it to the unbounded
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`discretion of political decisionmakers who may “distort its usual
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`functioning.” Legal Servs. Corp. v. Velazquez, 531 U.S. 533, 543
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`(2000). Just as the government “could not elect to use a broadcasting
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`network or a college publication structure in a regime which prohibits
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`speech necessary to the proper functioning of those systems,” id. at 544,
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`the First Amendment prevents it from leaving a public library’s book
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`removal decisions to the vagaries of political whims.
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`BACKGROUND
`A. Book Bans and the Culture War
`America’s public libraries have become the front line of a culture
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`war in which politicians of all ideological stripes battle to control the
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`public mind. Partisans nationwide are banning books from library
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`shelves with a ferocity librarians deem unprecedented.3 The American
`
`
`3 Hannah Allam, Culture war in the stacks: Librarians marshal against rising
`book bans, Wash. Post (Mar. 4, 2023), https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-
`security/2023/03/02/culture-war-stacks-librarians-marshal-against-rising-book-
`bans.
`
`
`
`5
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`Library Association reports that efforts to ban books doubled in 2022 over
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`the previous year, spiking to the highest level recorded since the
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`professional organization began tracking attempts to censor.4
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`The “vast majority” of targeted books involve discussions of race or
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`sexuality.5 For example, Juno Dawson’s non-fiction This Book is Gay,
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`focused on questions about sexual orientation, is regularly banned for its
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`discussion of sexuality, as is Ashley Hope Perez’s Out of Darkness, a
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`young adult novel about a romance between two Texas teenagers of
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`different races in the 1930s.6 Likewise, Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give,
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`a young adult novel about a black teenager fatally shot by a police officer,
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`has been banned for its portrayal of racism.7
`
`
`4 Alexandra Alter & Elizabeth A. Harris, Attempts to Ban Books Doubled in 2022,
`N.Y. Times (Mar. 23, 2023), https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/23/books/book-ban-
`2022.html.
`5 Hillel Italie, Book ban attempts hit record high in 2022, library org says,
`Associated Press (Mar. 23, 2023), https://apnews.com/article/book-bans-american-
`library-association-f84ac6fe3f8e3238fc54931bc1a5e054.
`6 Jane Henderson, Annual banned book list shows record attempts at censorship
`in 2022, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Apr. 24, 2023), https://www.stltoday.com
`/entertainment/books-and-literature/annual-banned-book-list-shows-record-
`attempts-at-censorship-in-2022/article_308e4678-e2ba-11ed-9667-
`034bec6abe9b.html.
`7 See, e.g., Jerry Mitchell & Ann Marie Cunningham, Mississippi’s Own Angie
`Thomas: Her Most Popular Book Is Missing from Library Shelves, Miss. Today (Mar.
`6
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`Activists and politicians have worked in tandem to remove these
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`and hundreds of other works from libraries across the country because
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`they dislike the ideas they contain.8 Lawmakers have targeted books they
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`claim may make readers “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other
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`form of psychological distress because of their race or sex,”9 and, “to
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`protect the children,” have even established citizen hotlines for reporting
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`books and librarians to the state.10
`
`Provoked by partisan fervor,11 the resulting crush of censorship—
`
`facilitated by government officials, like Defendants here—has yielded
`
`absurd results. A graphic-novel adaptation of Anne Frank’s The Diary of
`
`
`16, 2023), https://mississippitoday.org/2023/03/16/angie-thomas-mississippi-book-
`ban.
`8 See, e.g., Annie Gowen, Censorship battles’ new frontier: Your public library,
`Wash. Post (Apr. 17, 2022), https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/04/17/
`public-libraries-books-censorship.
`9 Bill Chappell, A Texas lawmaker is targeting 850 books that he says could make
`students feel uneasy, Nat’l Pub. Radio (Oct. 10, 2021), https://www.npr.org/2021/
`10/28/1050013664/texas-lawmaker-matt-krause-launches-inquiry-into-850-books.
`10 Ashley White, Louisiana attorney general creates ‘protecting minors’ tip line to
`report library books, Daily Advertiser (Dec. 1, 2022), https://www.theadvertiser.com/
`story/news/2022/12/01/louisiana-attorney-general-tip-line-report-library-banned-
`books/69690230007.
`11 Tyler Kingkade, Conservative activists want to ban 400 books from a library —
`but they aren’t even on shelves, NBC News (Aug. 23, 2022), https://www.nbcnews.com/
`news/us-news/conservative-activists-want-ban-400-books-library-arent-even-
`shelves-rcna44026.
`
`
`
`7
`
`

`

`Case: 23-50224 Document: 105-1 Page: 19 Date Filed: 06/02/2023
`
`a Young Girl, for example, was removed from Florida bookshelves for
`
`“minimizing the Holocaust.”12 In Missouri and elsewhere, Art
`
`Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus was banned along with other
`
`books about the Holocaust for being “sexually explicit.”13 And librarians
`
`themselves have become targets. Across the country, the push to purge
`
`books has produced not only empty shelves, but harassment,14 death
`
`threats,15 and the specter of criminal prosecution.16
`
`
`12 Kendall Tietz, Anne Frank novel banned in Florida school over ‘sexually explicit’
`content: ‘Minimization of the Holocaust’, Fox News (Apr. 13, 2013), https://www.
`foxnews.com/media/anne-frank-novel-banned-florida-school-sexually-explicit-
`content-minimization-holocaust.
`13 Andrew Lapin, Not just ‘Maus’: A Missouri school district removed several
`Holocaust history books, too, Jewish Telegraphic Agency (Nov. 16, 2022),
`https://www.jta.org/2022/11/16/united-states/several-holocaust-books-including-
`maus-have-been-yanked-from-some-missouri-schools-amid-state-law.
`14 See, e.g., Jeffrey Fleishman, School librarians vilified as the ‘arm of Satan’ in
`book-banning wars, L.A. Times (Jan. 27, 2023), https://www.latimes.com/politics/
`story/2023-01-27/school-librarians-vilified-as-the-arm-of-satan-in-book-banning-
`wars.
`15 See, e.g., Eesha Pendharkar, A School Librarian Pushes Back on Censorship
`and Gets Death Threats and Online Harassment, Ed. Week (Sept. 22, 2022),
`https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/a-school-librarian-pushes-back-on-
`censorship-and-gets-death-threats-and-online-harassment/2022/09.
`16 In the last two years, seven states passed legislation subjecting librarians to
`serious criminal penalties, including imprisonment and heavy fines, for providing
`young readers “harmful” books. Hannah Natanson, School librarians face a new
`the banned-book wars: Prison, Wash. Post
`(May 18, 2023),
`penalty
`in
`https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/05/18/school-librarians-jailed-
`banned-books.
`
`
`
`8
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`Case: 23-50224 Document: 105-1 Page: 20 Date Filed: 06/02/2023
`
`Although many current censorship demands come from the political
`
`right, the political left also shares the impulse to ban books. One
`
`American’s classic is another’s target, with liberal activists long seeking
`
`to ban books they complain advance racial stereotypes.17 For example,
`
`The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has regularly been banned since its
`
`publication in 1885 because of its depiction of Huck and Jim’s
`
`relationship and inclusion of the word “nigger.”18 Because Huckleberry
`
`Finn’s “depiction of racist attitudes can cause students to feel upset,
`
`marginalized, or humiliated,” New Jersey legislators sought to ban it
`
`from state classrooms in 2019.19
`
`Censors have likewise targeted John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men;
`
`one Minnesota district banned it in 2020 for “racist stereotypes and
`
`
`17 See, e.g., Anne Lyon Haight & Chandler B. Grannis, Banned Books: 387 B.C. to
`1978 A.D. 120–22 (1978) (documenting efforts to censor books “that could,
`conceivably, incite or sustain racial, religious, or ethnic prejudice.”).
`(Sept.
`18 Banned: Adventures
`of Huckleberry Finn, PBS
`https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/banned-adventu