In the past few years, there have been a surge in new state laws, administrative actions and lawsuits relating to banning certain books in elementary, middle and high school, particularly those having sexual content or are deemed as inappropriate or vulgar. These laws often implicate constitutional concerns under the First and Fourteenth amendments.
Meanwhile, Illinois, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Maryland, Vermont, Washington and New Jersey have passed anti-book ban laws, which prohibit the removal of books in libraries that receive state funding for partisan or discriminatory reasons.
The U.S. Supreme Court addressed the legality of book bans in Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853 (1982) in a plurality decision. In that case, the school district sought to remove several books from public schools that were deemed by the school board to be “anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, and just plain filthy.” The Court reasoned that school boards may not remove books from libraries simply because they dislike the ideas contained in the books and that school boards must have legitimate educational reasons for removing books, rather than a desire to suppress viewpoints.
