Ruling rejects part of governor-backed law that imposes criminal penalties on librarians for giving \u2018harmful\u2019 material to kids<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A federal judge ruled on Monday that sections of an Arkansas<\/a> law, which sought to impose criminal penalties on librarians and booksellers for distributing \u201charmful\u201d material to children, were unconstitutional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The law, known as the Arkansas Act 372, was signed into law last year by Republican governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. It was challenged by a coalition of organizations in the state, leading to a lengthy legal battle that concluded this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two sections of Act 372 subjected librarians and booksellers to jail time for distributing material that is deemed \u201charmful to children\u201d. Proponents of the law, including Sanders, said the law was put in place to \u201cprotect children\u201d from \u201cobscene\u201d material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAct 372 is just common sense: schools and libraries shouldn\u2019t put obscene material in front of our kids,\u201d Sanders said in a statement to KATV-TV. \u201cI will work with Attorney General Griffin to appeal this ruling and uphold Arkansas law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The governor signed the bill into law in March 2023, and a coalition of organizations in the state, including the Central Arkansas Library System in Little Rock and the ACLU of Arkansas, challenged it last year, saying the law was vague, overly broad and that the fear of criminal penalties would have a chilling effect on librarians across the state. A federal court temporarily blocked<\/a> the enforcement of the two sections in question, while the law was being challenged in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two sections that were struck down on Monday had established a criminal misdemeanor for \u201cfurnishing a harmful item to a minor\u201d, and would have required local governments to create oversight boards to review challenged material. The organizations opposing the law argued that local officials, at their own discretion, could censor whichever books and material they pleased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a significant milestone on a long, sometimes rocky road we were obligated to travel after the passage of Act 372,\u201d said Nate Coulter, executive director of the Central Arkansas Library System, in response to Monday\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe took that path to protect our librarians from prosecution for doing their jobs and to prevent some local elected officials from censoring library books they did not feel were \u2018appropriate\u2019 for our patrons to read.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2004, a federal judge struck down a similar law. The year prior, the state passed a law that required booksellers and librarians to hide materials deemed \u201charmful to minors\u201d. It was deemed unconstitutional after legal challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n