Six associations filed an amicus biref on Sexual Content Law, challenging Texas’ House Bill 1181, pointing to the negative effects for booksellers and libraries. Early July, the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to view this case.
Whilst Texas’ Sexual Content Law was designed to prevent minors’ access to online pornographic content, this law poses various challenges for booksellers and libraries. The amicus brief argues that the law in question violates the First Amendment – Freedom of Speech. Applying to sites where at least one-third of its content is considered “harmful to minors,” would automatically impede access to adults and older minors to constitutionally protected materials which often include literary classics, health books, contemporary fiction and young adult fiction.
“Courts have recognized that complying with these laws is untenable for booksellers and librarians. Libraries could bar anyone under the age of 19 from entering, but that would compromise the mission of public libraries, and likely impose an unnecessary and unjustified burden on older minors’ ability to access free library books appropriate to his or her age and reading level,” the brief states. Other than wrongly implying that a library or bookstore sold primarily ‘adult-content books,’ such regulations are immensely detrimental to business. Attempting to limit a bookstore’s collection would require a comprehensive review of inventory, which not only would be an expensive and time-consuming process, but it would also pose logistical difficulties to order new books, since librarians rarely review books in their entirety, but rely on third-party sources. In the event that these hurdles could be overcome, this law would result in removing many popular books and bestsellers which are constitutionally protected for adults and older minors. Such a drastic step would not only prevent public libraries from providing materials of interest, but it would be comercially harmful for booksellers too.
The 33-page brief includes that “Book challenges in the name of protecting minors are so prevalent in Florida—such as 1,600 recent book-banning attempts in Escambia County alone, including dictionaries — that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis scaled back policies that made it easier to challenge books in schools. Even a book about book bans was among the books challenged in the Indian River Florida school district, and the board voted in favor of removing it in 2024. More than 140 books had been removed from school shelves in that same district as of March 2024.”
The court filing can be seen here.