A copy of "The Bluest Eye," by Toni Morrison, sits on a shelf in the Juneau Public Library downtown on August 7, 2024. The book was taken from school library shelves in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District after parent and community complaints in 2023, but must be returned before the start of the 2024-2025 school year. (Photo by Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
All but seven of the 56 books the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District removed from school libraries must be reshelved by next week, pending a trial next year, ruled U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason on Tuesday.
The banned books, including well-known titles like Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five” and Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner,” were removed from schools last year without individual consideration of their content after parents and community members complained of “LGBTQ themes” or sexually explicit content in district meetings.
Gleason’s order said the district’s action violated students’ constitutional rights and “raises the specter of official suppression of ideas.” That caused irreparable harm, and would continue to do so if they stayed off library shelves until trial, her order found. The order is a preliminary injunction; the books’ ultimate fate will be determined in a trial scheduled for April of next year.
The district released a statement on Thursday that said the order is in line with work the school board has undertaken in the last year, which includes reviewing the books and returning some to library shelves. “The Court’s decision directs the District to report on what it has already done including the reshelving of books as directed by the Board ,” the statement said, in part.
Savannah Fletcher, the attorney for the plaintiffs with the Northern Justice Project, said the court’s ruling shows that the Constitution doesn’t allow the government to remove books without a compelling reason for an indefinite period of time.
“The Constitution doesn’t allow the government to remove ideas simply because some people disagree with them,” she said.
“I think it’s a really great reminder during this time of tension around our schools, around students rights and parents rights and the protection of teachers and educators, that there is a baseline we all have to follow, and our Constitution is going to protect that. It really reaffirms the rights of students to access ideas, to access information.”
The case comes against the backdrop of a national reckoning about which books and what kind of material should be available to students. Fletcher said the Alaska case is unique because the district removed such a large quantity of books without individual review.
“This has never been written about by a court before. It is kind of a novel spin on it,” Fletcher said, adding that the lack of precedent presented a challenge when briefing the court.
Meanwhile, some books have already been approved to go back to library shelves by the community. After the district removed them, it established a library committee, a majority of whose members were selected by the school board. The committee was tasked with determining whether the books were “criminally indecent” and it allowed more than a dozen books to return to schools, according to court filings. Another 14 titles were referred to the district for a final decision; others were not reviewed or found to be out of circulation or missing entirely. The court’s decision overrides these determinations, unless the school administration or board provides the court with a compelling reason to remove a specific title.
Scott Adams and his wife Dawn were plaintiffs in the case with their middle school-aged daughter, who he said is an avid reader and fan of the Harry Potter series.
He said he joined the lawsuit because the family felt the district’s action was a violation of the First Amendment and he was “ecstatic” with Tuesday’s order.
“I took an oath when I joined the military over 30 years ago. And the oath — to support and defend the Constitution — doesn’t end when you leave the military,” he said.
He said he wants to see a better process for deciding which books should be in the library, and said teachers and librarians should be trusted with those decisions.
The seven books that will remain off the shelves for indecency in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough school district are “Call Me by Your Name,” “Verity,” “It Ends with Us,” “Ugly Love,” “A Court of Mist and Fury,” “A Court of Silver Flames” and “You ” Their removal will be reviewed with the others in the trial next year.
This article has been updated with a statement from the school district on Aug. 8, 2024.
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