What does the Texas book ban law entail? Federal appeals court blocks controversial state law

A lower court recently gave the verdict that the Texas law, which required booksellers and school libraries dealing with “s*xually explicit" books to obtain ratings, was illegal. Hence, the federal appeals court suspended the law on Wednesday, January 17.

In the same ruling, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared that the state was not permitted to violate the Constitution.

Three justices ruled in favor of these Texas bookshops and national publishing associations. They said that the bill infringed upon their right to free speech and would negatively impact their companies.

Regarding the same, the Appeals Court stated,

“We agree with the State that it has an interest in protecting children from harmful library materials. But ‘neither [the State] nor the public has any interest in enforcing a regulation that violates federal law”.

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Federal appeals court blocks the law that banned certain books in Texas

The appeal court blocked the law against banning of "s*xually explicit" books (Image via Facebook / BookPeople)

A new Texas law that forces bookshops to grade their books for s*xual content and forbids any that are deemed "s*xually explicit" from being taught in the state's public schools was banned by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday, January 17.

The controversial state law known as the READER Act, or House Bill 900 prohibits the schools from purchasing books that are deemed inappropriate and mandates that the schools only purchase from vendors who rate their books in accordance with new state rules. However, the law has been banned.

While some supported HB 900, several book retailers, like BookPeople in Austin, and library associations filed lawsuits against multiple state agencies in July 2023. They claimed that the law is too troublesome and disadvantageous for companies.

As per San Antonio News Express, the court wrote,

“Balancing a myriad of factors that depend on community standards is anything but the mere disclosure of factual information. And it has already proven controversial”.

The ruling prevents the Texas Education Agency from carrying out the legislation. Regarding the same, the Texas statute stated that the ruling was historic, protected writers, and allowed parents to make decisions about their children without intervention from the government.

The court continued by declaring that the publishers and bookshops suffered "irreparable" financial losses and that the statute constituted "compelled speech”.

The lower court concluded that the Supreme Court's ruling that people are free from government-imposed speech is supported by the decision. It led to "a conclusion that the statute is unconstitutional”.

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Passed last year, the Texas Restricting Explicit and Adult-Designated Educational Resources Act (READER) Act mandates that publishers evaluate books for "s*xually explicit" or "s*xually relevant" content and submit these ratings to the Texas Education Agency, which is in charge of managing public education, yearly.

Books that fall under the category of "s*xually explicit" cannot be sold to schools, and those that are already in school libraries need to be taken out. School libraries prohibit students from checking out books with "s*xually explicit" content without written permission from their parents.

However, not supporting the law, booksellers challenged it last year, claiming that its wide meaning might result in the restriction or ban of works such as Maus, Of Mice and Men, Romeo and Juliet, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.