The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal on a Texas free speech case
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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a Texas case that allowed local officials to remove books deemed objectionable from public libraries.
The dispute originated in 2022 when residents of rural Llano County challenged the removal of more than a dozen books addressing topics such as sex, race, gender, and even humor involving flatulence. A lower federal appeals court had previously ruled that removing the books did not violate Constitutional free speech protections.
Publishers and librarians nationwide had closely followed the case. Free speech advocates criticized the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear it.
“Leaving the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in place undermines basic principles of free speech and allows local governments to impose ideological control over what people can read,” said Elly Brinkley, staff attorney for U.S. Free Expression Programs at PEN America.
Sam Helmick, president of the American Library Association, added that the decision “threatens to turn government libraries into centers for indoctrination rather than spaces for open inquiry, undermining the First Amendment right to read without censorship.”
The controversy began when one group of residents requested the county library commission remove the books from circulation. The commission directed librarians to comply, while another group of residents sued to keep the books available.
Llano County, located about 75 miles northwest of Austin, has roughly 20,000 residents. The community is predominantly white and conservative, with strong ties to agriculture and hunting.
Books targeted for removal included Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson, They Called Themselves the K.K.K. by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak, It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health by Robie H. Harris, and Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings. Children’s titles such as Larry the Farting Leprechaun by Jane Bexley and My Butt is So Noisy! by Dawn McMillan were also on the list.
In 2023, a federal judge ordered some books restored to the library shelves, but that decision was overturned earlier this year by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. At one point, the county considered closing its public libraries entirely rather than returning the books.
The appeals court stated in its May 23 ruling that removing a book from a library is not the same as banning it. “No one is banning [or burning] books. If a disappointed patron can’t find a book in the library, he can order it online, buy it from a bookstore, or borrow it from a friend,” the court wrote.
Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham, the county’s top official, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.