Judge blocks Arkansas law banning librarians from giving minors ‘harmful’ books

A federal judge in Arkansas temporarily blocked a state law that would have made it a crime for librarians and booksellers to give minors materials deemed “harmful” to them – a move celebrated by free-speech advocates, who had decried the law as a violation of individual liberties.

Act 372 would have taken effect Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks issued a preliminary injunction Saturday, siding with bookstores, libraries and patrons in the state that argued in a lawsuit filed last month that parts of the law were unconstitutional.

Article 1 would have made it a criminal offense to knowingly provide a minor with any material deemed “harmful” – a term defined by state law as containing nudity or sexual content, appealing to a “prurient interest in sex,” lacking “serious literary, scientific, medical, artistic or political value for minors” or deemed “inappropriate for minors” under current community standards.

Plaintiffs also challenged Article 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.

The judge also denied the state’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders 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.

The offices of Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, also a Republican, and Sanders did not immediately respond to a request early Sunday for comment. Griffin told the Associated Press in an email Saturday that his office would be “reviewing the judge’s opinion and will continue to vigorously defend the law.”

Act 372 would make “furnishing a harmful item to a minor” a class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.

The injunction noted that Arkansas already has a law that makes it a crime to provide obscene materials to minors. However, librarians and other people working in museums, libraries or schools were protected from prosecution even if they disseminated material “claimed to be obscene,” as long as they acted “within the scope of [their] regular employment.”

Act 372 removed that protection, signaling “a fundamental change in how librarians are treated under the law,” according to the injunction.

The ACLU of Arkansas, which jointly filed the suit against Act 372, celebrated the court’s decision in a statement Saturday and said the victory was part of a broader battle to defend freedom of speech and thought. “The question we had to ask was – do Arkansans still legally have access to reading materials? Luckily, the judicial system has once again defended our highly valued liberties,” ACLU of Arkansas Executive Director Holly Dickson said in the statement.

In his injunction, Brooks also referred to the wider implications of the Arkansas law, quoting “Fahrenheit 451,” a novel about an American society run by authorities who burn books to control people’s access to information and knowledge. “There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches,” the judge wrote, citing the author, Ray Bradbury.

The suit challenging Act 372 named Arkansas’ 28 elected prosecuting attorneys, as well as the western county of Crawford and its county judge, Chris Keith, as defendants, contending that they would be responsible for enforcing the law.

The lawsuit names Crawford County as a case study in how the law could be used to curtail constitutionally protected rights to access certain materials. The county has since last year been gripped by a dispute over the placement of LGBTQ+ children’s books inside library branches. According to the complaint, after the books were moved to dedicated areas in the adult books sections, the county defended its right to protect “children from exposure to materials that might harm their innocence.” The county also said Act 372 could make it “necessary to continue modifying and changing the library system’s policies and procedures,” hinting at possible future crackdowns, per the complaint.

Plaintiffs in the suit included Hayden Kirby, a 17-year-old high school student and resident of Little Rock who frequents the Central Arkansas Library System, another plaintiff. In a statement, Kirby said the law would “restrict the spaces I’ve accessed freely throughout my life.”

“I want to fight for our rights to intellectual freedom and ensure that libraries remain spaces where young Arkansans can explore diverse perspectives,” she added.

The Washington Post’s Sophia Nguyen and Hannah Natanson contributed to this report.