A federal judge ruled Monday that an Arkansas law allowing for the prosecution of librarians and booksellers who distribute sexually explicit content to minors is unconstitutional.
Obama-appointed Judge Timothy Brooks struck down the law stating that it is “vaguely worded” and “violates the due process rights of professional librarians and booksellers and the First Amendment rights of library and bookstore patrons.” The penalty for anyone allowing minors to access inappropriate content would have been up to a year of jail time.
“The Court therefore concludes that Plaintiffs have established as a matter of law that Section 5 would permit, if not encourage, library committees and local governmental bodies to make censorship decisions based on content or viewpoint, which would violate the First Amendment,” Brooks wrote in the court’s opinion.
The law would have given elected officials the final say over what content is allowed to remain available for minors, according to the bill’s text.
Content that would “appeal to a prurient interest in sex to minors” or that an average adult would find “patently offensive … with respect to what is suitable for minors” would be banned from minors under the law. Brooks argued that the definition is “vaguely worded and susceptible to multiple meanings” and that it is unclear if such material could still be displayed in the adult sections of stores and libraries where minors may accidentally be exposed to it.
The suit was brought in 2023 by a coalition of libraries, library organizations, librarians, booksellers, authors’ associations and patrons. Brooks issued a preliminary injunction against the law in 2023 just days before it was set to go into effect and has now permanently blocked it in Monday’s ruling.
“The Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution guarantees the right of every American to speak freely and to receive speech,” Brooks wrote in the 2023 ruling. “This freedom of speech, codified in the First Amendment, is enjoyed by everyone—even children.”
Attorney General Tim Griffin is planning to appeal the ruling, according to the Arkansas Advocate.
Several states have been taking steps to protect minors from harmful content, with Florida removing pornographic and violent content from children’s libraries since 2022. Other states such as Illinois have signed legislation preventing the removal of explicit content for minors.
Such laws are often the topic of controversy and legal challenges.
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