A Republican trifecta in Washington is raising concerns over the potential for national book ban legislation.
Congressional Republicans have shown increased interest in the possibility, with House members recently hosting a hearing on the topic and Project 2025 laying out how a national ban could work.
Advocates highlight that book bans have been popular in states with total GOP control, and they are preparing for a potential federal push before the second Trump presidency begins.
“Certainly, we think it's a concern. You know, part of what we've watched over the last three years is the way in which different states” with unified GOP control “have passed sensorial legislation that has led book banning,” said Kasey Meehan, director of the Freedom to Read program at PEN America.
“I think it's something for us ... to continue to be vigilant on and to be, you know, watching the extent to which state legislation that has led to book bans starts appearing as a potential federal policy,” Meehan added.
Book bans are of course nothing new, but legislation relating to school reading lists and the contents of library shelves have exploded since students returned to class amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Over the past two years, there have been over 200 bills in state legislatures proposing — and some that have passed — that would institute statewide book bans in school libraries and/or criminalized librarians for providing access to books that some people object to. So, to see that activity happen at that scale, if this would move to the federal level, I think it's definitely a concern to Americans across the country,” said Cindy Hohl, president of the American Library Association (ALA).
The currently Democratic-majority Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the issue last year called "Book Bans: Examining How Censorship Limits Liberty and Literature." While Republicans generally avoid using the word "ban" on the issue, many took the opportunity to demonstrate their support for keeping some books out of the classroom.
“So if you’re providing content to a child that if spoken to a child by you or by the school if that would constitute in some jurisdictions, in some circumstances, a crime or tort, you’ve got a problem,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said at the time. “These school districts are acting in response to legitimate parental concerns. They should be removing these. Shame on them if they don’t and shame on those who want to groom children sexually.”
PEN America raised alarms this September around Project 2025, a conservative policy guide for the next president, over language that could create a federal policy about what books are allowed in schools.
“Project 2025 is up-front about its intent to equate LGBTQ+ content in children’s books and in school curricula with pornography, and to treat making such content accessible as a crime. PEN America has repeatedly warned that this type of rhetoric directly facilitates book bans, many of which target books with LGBTQ+ characters or that tell LGBTQ+ stories,” the organization wrote.
The number of books that were actually banned in the past year is up for debate.
ALA found a drop in book bans over the past year, seeing 1,128 different books were contested through 414 challenges in the first eight months of 2024. In the same time frame last year, the ALA found 695 challenges involving 1,915 different books.
According to PEN America, book bans have doubled from the 2022-2023 school year to the 2023-2024 academic year.
PEN America considers any book taken off the shelves even temporarily as a ban while ALA only counts books that are permanently removed.
Though pushes to remove this or that title almost always come from the right, Meehan said advocates' best bet may be "to mobilize Republicans in defending one's free expression and in defending one's freedom to read and access information."
“Free speech and free expression have been historically a pretty bipartisan issue area," she said.
"I think in some ways, what we've been doing is, or what we would hope to do, is demonstrate why there are First Amendment protections around the right to read, and how, you know, this is a principle essential to democracy. And so, working across the aisle would be, you know, likely be the path forward,” Meehan added.
Others are skeptical there will ever be a national ban but think the support at the federal level could embolden more states to take up their own.
“I’m not as concerned about a national book ban, but I believe there will be more on the state and local level,” said Emily Knox, board president of the National Coalition Against Censorship. “I suspect things will get worse in some states and better in other states.”
