A federal judge on Monday struck down key parts of an Arkansas law that threatened librarians and booksellers with imprisonment if they were found to have provided “harmful” content to a minor.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks ruled that two parts of Arkansas Act 372 — which Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed in 2023 — are overly broad and vague, and violated librarians’, booksellers’ and patrons’ First Amendment rights.
You are what you read. Reveal your 2024 reader type with Newsprint.
The two parts of the law that were struck down would have established a criminal misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in prison, for librarians and booksellers who distribute “harmful” material to a minor. It also would have required local governments to create oversight boards to review challenged content, which often deal with themes of race and sexuality. The ruling, which will likely be challenged, comes as a growing number of GOP-controlled statehouses have considered similar laws that threaten librarians with prison.
“Up until the passage of Act 372, it appears that Arkansas’s more pressing concern with respect to librarians was that they be insulated from meritless claims and time-wasting prosecutions,” Brooks wrote. “Times have changed.”
If the statute’s purpose “was to protect younger minors from accessing inappropriate sexual content in libraries and bookstores, the law will only achieve that end at the expense of everyone else’s First Amendment rights,” Brooks, who was appointed by former president Barack Obama, said. “The law deputizes librarians and booksellers as the agents of censorship; when motivated by the fear of jail time, it is likely they will shelve only books fit for young children and segregate or discard the rest.”
The state plans to challenge the decision. “I respect the court’s ruling and will appeal,” Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said Monday. Sanders’s office did not respond to request for comment Thursday; the governor has said to local media that the law “is just common sense: schools and libraries shouldn’t put obscene material in front of our kids” and will work with Griffin to appeal the ruling.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks ruled that two parts of Arkansas Act 372 — which Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed in 2023 — are overly broad and vague, and violated librarians’, booksellers’ and patrons’ First Amendment rights.
You are what you read. Reveal your 2024 reader type with Newsprint.
The two parts of the law that were struck down would have established a criminal misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in prison, for librarians and booksellers who distribute “harmful” material to a minor. It also would have required local governments to create oversight boards to review challenged content, which often deal with themes of race and sexuality. The ruling, which will likely be challenged, comes as a growing number of GOP-controlled statehouses have considered similar laws that threaten librarians with prison.
“Up until the passage of Act 372, it appears that Arkansas’s more pressing concern with respect to librarians was that they be insulated from meritless claims and time-wasting prosecutions,” Brooks wrote. “Times have changed.”
If the statute’s purpose “was to protect younger minors from accessing inappropriate sexual content in libraries and bookstores, the law will only achieve that end at the expense of everyone else’s First Amendment rights,” Brooks, who was appointed by former president Barack Obama, said. “The law deputizes librarians and booksellers as the agents of censorship; when motivated by the fear of jail time, it is likely they will shelve only books fit for young children and segregate or discard the rest.”
The state plans to challenge the decision. “I respect the court’s ruling and will appeal,” Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said Monday. Sanders’s office did not respond to request for comment Thursday; the governor has said to local media that the law “is just common sense: schools and libraries shouldn’t put obscene material in front of our kids” and will work with Griffin to appeal the ruling.
