June 11, 2024

Books

Reuters - A federal appeals court panel on Thursday ordered that eight of 17 books that had been removed from a Texas library's shelves over conservatives' complaints that they were inappropriate must be returned.The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel said in a 2-1 ruling that partially upheld a lower court's injunction that the library in the small town of Llano had infringed on defendants' First Amendment rights to information by removing some of the books.

Nine of the books, however, can remain off library shelves pending the final outcome of the appeal, because one judge found they were not removed because of any ideas or viewpoints they contained, but because they were focused on "juvenile, flatulent humor.""Government actors may not remove books from a public library with the intent to deprive patrons of access to ideas with which they may disagree," Judge Jacques Wiener wrote in the majority opinion.

Yes Magazine -  Since 2021, PEN America has recorded nearly 6,000 cases of book bannings—a staggering number on the rise. In just the first half of the 2022–’23 school year, PEN America saw a 28% increase in bans compared to the previous six months. A striking 36% of bans targeted books written for and by the LGBTQ community.

No comments: