Federal judge sends books suspected of being “pornographic” back to Texas library’s shelves

Two pretty cool things happened in Texas over the weekend: Country star Kelsea Ballerini was a co-host the CMT Awards and used the stage to make salient statements on Tennessee towing ban and the latest mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville; and a federal judge ruled that at least 12 books removed from Llano County public libraries for containing LGBTQ+ and racist content must be returned to those shelves within 24 hours.

On Saturday, Judge Robert Pittman ruled in favor of seven people in April 2022 sued county officials, who claimed the removal of the books violated their constitutional rights. This series of books included titles like Caste: The origins of our dissatisfaction by Isabel Wilkerson, They called themselves KKK: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti and Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teenager by Jazz Jennings.

The books were first pulled off shelves when Republican lawmakers and community members claimed they were “inappropriate” and “pornographic filth,” largely due to the fact that they contained narratives of marginalized and LGBTQ+ people. The suit, filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio, accused district officials of removing and restricting the books from the public library system simply because they disagree with the ideas contained within.

According to an email from a community member and one defendant in the lawsuit, Bonnie Wallace (a woman who has since become vice chair of the Llano County Library Board), went so far as to consider involving local pastors in the fight against the books: “Maybe they can organize weekly prayer vigils on this specific topic… May God protect our children from this filth.”

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Co-defendants who countered that the books were simply removed as part of a “weeding” process that is part of library system policy include: Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham, County Commissioner Jerry Don Moss, Peter Jones, Mike Sandoval and Linda Raschke; Library System Director Amber Milum and four members of the Llano County Library Committee, Wallace, Rochelle Wells, Rhonda Schneider and Gay Baskin. According to CNN, no one responded to requests for comment.

“Whether or not the books actually qualified for ‘weeding’ under the library’s existing policies, there is no question that the targeted review was prompted directly by complaints from users and county officials about the contents of those titles,” Pittman wrote in his ruling .

Well, before you can cast out a Yahweh, the accused have already done so appealed in response to the verdict and are allegedly represented by Jonathan MitchellThe architect the Texas abortion ban and the Anti-PrEP lawsuit That has effectively eliminated the responsibility of insurers to cover the HIV prevention drug, as well as cancer screening, mammograms and some including screening for gestational diabetes and preeclampsia. So the Conservatives are clearly preparing for a fight.

Accordingly PEN Americaboasted Texas most book bans in the country last year: 713. We hope that this will not prevail.