More than a dozen books that Llano County, Texas leaders had banned and taken off the shelves of the county libraries must now be returned, according to a ruling made last week by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman.
“Within twenty-four hours of the issuance of this order, Defendants shall return all print books that were removed because of their viewpoint or content, including the following print books, to the Llano County Libraries,” Judge Pitman wrote in his ruling, ABC news reports.
Additionally, the preliminary order by Judge Pitman prohibits the books from being removed until the case is decided.
In the summer and fall of 2021, Llano County Commissioner Jerry Don Moss and Judge Ron Cunningham pushed for the removal of more than a dozen books from public libraries. They claimed that a Llano County community group thought the books were inappropriate, including encouraging “grooming” behavior. The group’s complaints, which grew in volume over the next few months, centered on works about the LGBTQ community and issues of race.
Some of the banned titles include Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti and Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings.
Several library patrons filed a lawsuit naming Moss and Cunningham as defendants last April, alleging “that their First Amendment rights were violated when county and library officials removed the books from the system.”
The judge’s ruling to overrule the book ban comes amidst an ongoing nationwide debate about what subjects should be taught in our schools and what books should be available for children and teens to read. As The Hill reports, “[b]ooks that discuss gender, sexuality, and race, in particular, have come under political scrutiny as parents and politicians alike argue over what their children should have access to.”
In his decision siding with the plaintiffs, Judge Pitman wrote, “Defendants removed the books at issue to prevent access to viewpoints and content to which they objected,” and did not believe this reasoning as such would be able to “pass constitutional muster.”
Following the ruling, Ellen Leonida, attorney for the plaintiffs, issued a statement, calling the ruling “a ringing victory for democracy…The government cannot tell citizens what they can or can’t read. Our nation was founded on the free exchange of ideas, and banning books you disagree with is a direct attack on our most basic liberties.”