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A US district judge has blocked the implementation of a new Texas book ban law that would have required books to be given sexual content ratings.
The “Reader Act”, formerly “HB 900”, which was due to go into effect on 1st September 2023, would, according to the Association of American Publishers (AAP): “require independent bookstores, national chain bookstores, large online book retailers, book publishers and other vendors to review and rate millions of books and other library materials according to sexual content if those books are sold to school libraries, and to do so according to vague labels dictated by the state without any process for judicial review".
Under the law, books rated “sexually explicit” (if the book includes material deemed “patently offensive” by unspecified community standards) would have been banned from Texas schools, while books rated "sexually relevant" (books with any representation of sexual conduct) would require students to have written parental permission to access them.
The law would have given the state the ultimate power to change the rating on any book, and vendors who refused to rate books or to accept the state’s designated rating would have been barred from selling to Texas public schools.
Judge Alan D Albright of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division, indicated in a Status Call held on Zoom yesterday (31st August) that he would issue a written order in one to two weeks granting a Preliminary Injunction barring the implementation of a new Texas censorship law in its entirety. In the interim, the state is enjoined from enforcement of any part of the law.
The ruling came in response to a suit filed by two Texas bookstores, Austin’s BookPeople, and West Houston’s Blue Willow Bookshop, together with the American Booksellers Association, the Association of American Publishers, the Authors Guild, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
Valerie Koehler, owner of Houston’s Blue Willow Bookshop; Charley Rejsek, the c.e.o of Austin, Texas-based bookstore BookPeople; Allison K Hill, c.e.o. of the American Booksellers Association; Maria A Pallante, president and c.e.o. of the AAP; Mary Rasenberger, c.e.o. of the Authors Guild; and Jeff Trexler, interim director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, released a joint statement.
They said: “We are grateful for the court’s swift action in deciding to enjoin this law, in the process preserving the long-established rights of local communities to set their own standards; protecting the constitutionally protected speech of authors, booksellers, publishers and readers; preventing the state government from unlawfully compelling speech on the part of private citizens; and shielding Texas businesses from the imposition of impossibly onerous conditions. We look forward to reading the court’s full opinion once it is issued.”
A lawyer for the defence said the state will be appealing against the decision.