A number of global publishing companies are suing the state of Idaho over a bill that requires public libraries to restrict what books and content minors can access, according to the local news outlet Idaho news 6.
Newsweek has contacted the attorneys on the lawsuit via email and the Idaho attorney general's office.
Why It Matters
PEN America has documented nearly 16,000 book bans in public schools nationwide since 2021, and book banning has been on the rise in the U.S. in recent years.
PEN America attributes the increased censorship as being "mobilized by conservative groups," which predominantly target books about race and racism or individuals of color and also books on LGBTQ+ topics.
The "discriminating" of LGBTQ+ content in libraries, among other issues, is what the lawsuit seeks to address.
What To Know
Major publishers of what is known as the Big Five, including Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster, along with the Donnelly Public Library and several authors, including Malinda Lo, David Levithan and others, filed a lawsuit against Raúl Labrador, Idaho's attorney general, on February 4 over its House Bill 710.
The bill, which came into effect in July 2024, prohibits certain content from being "promoted, given or made available" to those under the age of 18.
Material that is deemed harmful by the bill includes any depiction or description of "intimate sexual acts," masturbation, nudity or "sexual conduct," which also includes content on homosexuality.
The lawsuit notes that many award-winning classic novels like Slaughterhouse Five, The Bluest Eye, and Clockwork Orange, which children were typically introduced to at school, have now been deemed as inappropriate for minors.
It adds that the bill's description of what is "harmful to minors" is "cryptic and tautological," meaning it puts educators and librarians in a difficult position of knowing what can and can't be shown to minors.
The lawsuit also writes that the bill "lumps" all minors in to one category, when what is not suitable for young children can be "appropriate and of significant value to older minors."
Libraries have had to develop "adult-only" sections in order to remove content from spaces in libraries that minors use, however the lawsuit writes that not all have the resources or space to do so.
The lawsuit also adds that the bill violates the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech, by "imposing viewpoint-based restrictions" on ideologies, opinions and perspectives on the materials libraries make available to minors.
What People Are Saying
Donnelly Public Library District's Sherry Scheline said, according to Idaho news 6: "Our staff members are spread thin enough already and do not have the bandwidth to review the entire collection and weed out the materials that may fall within H.B. 710."
Dan Novack, VP and associate general counsel for Penguin Random House, said in a news conference on Tuesday, according to the Idaho Statesman: "Banning a book is the resort of a government that has lost confidence in the power of its own message. Not only are book bans wrong, they are counterproductive."
What Happens Next
The lawsuit was filed with the Idaho District Court on Tuesday, and further details on the case are yet to be announced.
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