Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Arkansas Law that Would Allow Librarians to Be Criminally Charged for "Harmful Books"

The law, which was supposed to go into effect on August 1st, is temporarily halted

Photo byHenry BeonUnsplash

A federal judge has blocked a new law that was set to go into effect Tuesday, August 1st that would allow librarians to be charged for offering "harmful" materials in their libraries.

U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks granted a preliminary injunction Saturday after a coalition of libraries across the state filed a lawsuit stating the law, signed by Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, violated their constitutional rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

Brooks also denied a petition by defendants in Crawford County to have the case dismissed. The judge appeared to question the necessity of the law, noting that Arkansas "already criminalizes providing obscenity to minors" and that librarians have often had safe harbor from prosecution for disseminating materials claimed to be obscene.

"That immunity has not been questioned since the Arkansas Supreme Court found the exemption 'reasonable on its face' nearly four decades ago," Brooks wrote, adding that it protected librarians from "meritless claims."

"For more than a century, librarians have curated the collections of public libraries to serve diverse viewpoints, helped high school students with their term papers, made recommendations to book clubs, tracked down obscure books for those devoted to obscure pastimes, and mesmerized roomfuls of children with animated storytelling," Brooks wrote.

"So, the passage of Act 372 prompts a few simple, yet unanswered questions. For example: What has happened in Arkansas to cause its communities to lose faith and confidence in their local librarians?"

Brooks said that, though public libraries are overseen by state and local governments, they are "not to be mistaken for simply an arm of the state."

Plaintiffs also challenged Section 5, which would have allowed anyone “affected by” material in a particular county or municipal library to challenge the “appropriateness” of the material.

The plaintiffs argued that the law would force librarians and booksellers to make an impossible choice: Remove books that some might deem offensive to young readers from their shelves; create secure, adult-only spaces for those books; ban minors from their facilities altogether; or expose themselves to criminal charges or fines.

In his injunction, Brooks said the law “would permit, if not encourage, library committees and local governmental bodies to make censorship decisions based on content or viewpoint,” in violation of the right to free speech under the First Amendment. He agreed with the plaintiffs that the state’s definition of “harmful” materials was overly vague.

Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) signed Act 372 into law in March, making Arkansas the latest state to introduce criminal charges for librarians or booksellers over material deemed harmful or obscene.

Sanders’s office said in an email Sunday that the governor supports legislation that “protects kids from having access to obscene content.”