Conservative-dominated court restores books denounced by officials as ‘pornographic filth’ to school libraries
An appellate court has ruled that Texas cannot ban books from libraries simply because they mention “butt and fart” and other content which some state officials may dislike.
The fifth US circuit court of appeals issued its decision on Thursday in a 76-page majority opinion, which was written by Judge Jacques Wiener Jr and opened with a quote from American poet Walt Whitman: “The dirtiest book in all the world is the expurgated book.”
In its decision, the appellate court declared that “government actors may not remove books from a public library with the intent to deprive patrons of access to ideas with which they disagree”.
Already happening in some places. Local governments are cutting library funding because they don’t like the some of the content that their libraries are stocking, but the courts won’t let them ban it all.
Time to open private non-profit libraries, offer classes on social tolerance and apply for public grants?