Texas Freedom to Read Project Coalition Letter The Texas Freedom to Read Project has a sign-on letter telling the Texas state legislature: leave the right to read alone! Add your signature here. Defendants Appeal Final Injunction Against Arkansas Act 372 Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has appealed District Judge Timothy Brooks’ decision granting a final injunction against Arkansas Act 372. The appeal will be weighed by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has recently ruled on appeals to other decisions concerning censorship in schools and libraries. Smoke and Mirrors on Expression from the New Administration It’s been a dizzying week of executive orders and pronouncements from the new administration, some of which have free expression implications. Yet it can be hard to tell what matters and what doesn’t, especially with executive orders, which have a complicated legal status. Here is a read on what you can ignore and what to pay attention to from American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE). Ignore: - “Book bans are a hoax.” The administration does not control reality, and parents and students across the country know what is happening. This is more of an insult than an injury.
- Claims that the administration has “restor[ed] freedom of speech and end[ed] federal censorship.” This is a clear falsehood in the context of recent executive orders that at once compel and restrict speech on issues of gender and belief.
Pay attention to: - The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights dismissed 11 book ban investigations. While the fact-finding process and the possibility of creating more affirming school environments was valuable, the scope of these cases and their possible remediation was limited.
- State legislation is increasingly where the fates of books and book bans are being determined. You can sign up for our VoterVoice updates to receive an email when it is time to act in your state.
- Viewpoint-based threats to funding (content warning: transphobia) that could use financial coercion, through the conditional withholding of federal funds, to dictate speech to public entities and the private citizens and institutions who contract with them. The administration is brazenly attempting to punish anyone whose speech or belief it disagrees with.
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