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A Shocking Setback: Authors Guild Responds to DOE’s Dismissal of Book Ban Cases

Front view of the Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) Department of Education Building, the Education Department (ED) headquarters in Washington, DC.

The Authors Guild is deeply dismayed by the current administration’s recent decision to dismiss 11 complaints related to book bans and to eliminate the position of book ban coordinator. The Department of Education’s recent characterization of book bans as a “hoax” goes against the findings of multiple federal courts, which have found that certain of these laws violate the First Amendment rights of authors and students.

The issue here is not the removal of age-inappropriate, sexually explicit or obscene materials from schools; no one objects to that. The problem is the tendency to tar otherwise appropriate works with an accusation of “obscenity” because someone takes issue with the ideas contained in the book—more often than not works that are written by or stories that feature LGBTQ+ or BIPOC individuals. Some books have been removed because of challenges made by one or very few people, who often have not read the book.

Courts have agreed that these vague and overbroad laws aimed at keeping young readers from accessing contested library books are unconstitutional.

We acknowledge that this is not a simple issue, and that there are differing viewpoints. This is why laws and practices with respect to the books in school libraries need to be carefully crafted – and the position of Coordinator, who was not accountable to any one jurisdiction, was admirably placed to help school districts and jurisdictions understand and comply with federal law.