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Texas Library Censorship Attempt Struck Down By 5th Circuit

I'll read to that!

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Cute boy reading book in libraryIt is a rough time to be a teacher. Having parents who are interested in their children’s curriculum was the dream once upon a time. That’s become nightmarish as helicopter parents go out of their way to redefine any and everything as too “controversial” to belong to a learning environment — you can’t even take kids to see high art anymore. In Texas, there were several highly esteemed authors — Shakespeare and Toni Morrison among them — that you couldn’t teach for fear that it would offend the parents’ moral sensibilities. Thankfully, Texas teachers have hope of a little more autonomy in their classrooms. From Jurist:

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled on Wednesday that Texas legislation aimed at restricting or banning “sexually explicit” books in public school libraries likely violates the Constitution, affirming a lower court’s injunction against it.
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Representatives from the plaintiffs’ side welcomed the judgment with a sense of triumph and relief: “The court’s decision also shields Texas businesses from the imposition of impossibly onerous conditions, protects the basic constitutional rights of the plaintiffs, and lets Texas parents make decisions for their own children without government interference or control. This is a good day for bookstores, readers, and free expression.”

It is a good day for students, too. Laws that prevent kids from being able to learn are literally stultifying, and it’s a shame that the main motivator is petty politics. The motivation for these book bans seem more concerned with parents’ egos than children’s well being. Just take a look at some of the books Texan parents want banned. A Michelle Obama autobiography got shot down because it “painted Trump as a bully.” 1) So? 2) How’s that second defamation case going for ya? A book called “A Good Kind Of Trouble” about a 12-year-old joining a protest was attacked for “causing a white child to feel confusion or distress.” Excuse me, were we not all forced to read Lord of the Flies growing up? Because the thought that my classmates and I would all go feral if the teachers left us to our own devices was far more harrowing than people using the First Amendment.

Best of luck to the teachers in Florida. Even if the books are available to your students, it won’t be easy getting them to read them when you have to compete against TikTok.

US Appeals Court Upholds Injunction Against Texas Law Censoring ‘Sexually Explicit’ School Books [Jurist]

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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