Book Banning in Libraries: First Amendment Controversies

Book bans in public and school libraries have been on the rise across the country, and the controversies associated with them have included lawsuits against states and public school districts initiated by book supporters, book publishers, librarians and first amendment groups. Book bans have taken several forms, including both state legislation and local school boards directing bans on certain types of books in public schools. Bans are also happening on isolated occasions when advocacy groups attack a school or public library’s content and demand bans. In response to certain types of book bans, many public and school libraries are proactively removing books on various subjects to avoid controversy.

Despite the bans, recent polling shows that Americans by large margins do not support these bans and trust teachers and local libraries to make the best decisions as to the content of books in those locations.ⁱ

This has not stopped the bans, however, many of which in the last two to three years have been in response to the demands of certain advocacy groups as opposed to single parents’ objections which had previously led the filing of complaints against school library content. According to PEN America,ⁱⁱ the 2022-23 academic school year saw an escalation of book banning in classrooms and libraries across the country, recording more book bans in the fall 2022 school semester than in the prior two academic semesters. According to PEN America, during the first half of the 2022-2023 school year, there were 1,477 instances of individual books banned, affecting 874 unique titles and representing a 28% increase over the numbers from the prior six months.ⁱⁱⁱ PEN America also found that by the end of the 2022-2023 academic year the number of books removed from school and classroom libraries totaled 3,362, a 33% increase over the previous year.^iv

According to PEN America’s research, book banning is most prevalent in the states of Texas, Florida, Missouri, Utah and South Carolina due to a combination of local school district and state level official actions to ban a range of books. According to the PEN America report, Texas has the highest number of book bans on record with 438 removals, ahead of Florida with 357 and Missouri with 315, with Utah and South Carolina following with 100 each. PEN America also reports that the bans predominantly target stories written by or about people of color and LGBTQ individuals.^v

Record-High Censorship Efforts

The American Library Association (ALA) released a report concerning book censorship in September of this year making similar findings. The ALA was able to document some 1,900 attempts to censor individual library books and resources in 2022, the highest number of attempted book bans since the ALA began compiling data about this subject more than 20 years ago. 2023 represent an increase in the number of challenges from the same period in 2022 – when the number of total challenges nearly doubled from the preceding year. The ALA found that of the record number of unique titles targeted for censorship in 2022 and 2023, most were by or about LGBTQ people, people of color and indigenous people.^vi

State and local laws are driving the actions that give rise to these statistics. In Florida, three state statutes adopted in 2022 restrict instruction in schools on sexual orientation or gender identity, prohibiting educators from discussing certain topics related to race and racism and urging librarians to “err on the side of caution” when choosing library resources. The Parental Rights in Education bill (known as the Don’t Say Gay Bill)^vii bars classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in K-3 classrooms. In higher grades, the topics must be delivered in an “age-appropriate” or “developmentally appropriate” way and in accordance with state standards.^viii Schools have been confused in Florida as to whether this law applies to school or classroom libraries, but violations are punishable by the loss of a teacher’s professional license.^ix

Another 2022 Florida statute, the Stop WOKE. Act, prohibits schools and workplaces from instructing anyone that an individual, by virtue of their race, color, sex or national origin, “bears responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish or other psychological distress” on account of historical acts of racism. The law also forbids instruction or training that says that individuals are “privileged or oppressed” due to their race or sex.^x

Finally, a third Florida law passed in 2022 requires that schools keep online searchable databases of every book in their libraries and determine that these books do not contain pornography or materials deemed harmful to minors according to a librarian or media specialist.^xi Recently, the Florida Board of Education released training on the law for media specialists and encouraged them to “err on the side of caution” in the vetting process.^xii  Parents may challenge any materials contained in the database and petition to have them removed from schools. Recent Florida Department of Education clarification stated that the law applies to all collections of books in a school including classroom libraries.^xiii

Recently, several states and local school boards have been sued by individuals and organizations challenging laws related to book censorship. In May of this year, Penguin House, the country’s largest book publisher, was joined by a group of authors, parents and PEN America in an action filed in federal court alleging that the Escambia County, Florida School District and School Board violated the equal protection rights of authors and parents because it targeted books disproportionately written by nonwhite and LGBTQ authors and which address themes of race, racism, gender and sexuality.^xiv The County School Board has voted to remove 10 books from its schools either entirely or from certain grade levels, with many of these books requiring parental permission for children to enter areas where they are now located. The county school board action was precipitated by a challenge made by a language arts teacher in the district to more than 100 titles last year. The lawsuit alleges her objections are “nakedly ideological” and were pulled in many cases verbatim from a website called Book Looks which contains hundreds of reports about books that are deemed objectionable by the site’s operators.^xv