Prattville residents and library organizations filed a suit against the Autauga-Prattville Public Library board of trustees in federal court May 9 for its policies banning LGBTQ content for minors.
The lawsuit asks the Middle District to stop the library board from using what they called “harmful” policies that have “overwhelmingly restricted books with themes about and protagonists of diverse backgrounds, especially the LGBTQIA+ community,” according to a statement.
“A public body ‘has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content,’” a filing from the plaintiffs states, quoting a 1972 Supreme Court case. “The Autauga-Prattville Public Library Board of Trustees is doing so anyway.”
The plaintiffs are Samantha Diamond, Amber Frey, John Craig and Almut Haboeck, plus their children, the Alabama Library Association and anti-censorship group Read Freely Alabama, which began in Prattville last year.
In the complaint, they say the library’s new policies, enacted in February, limit adult and children’s First Amendment rights by stopping them from accessing certain books.
The library’s policy states, “for the avoidance of doubt, the library shall not purchase or otherwise acquire any material advertised for consumers ages 17 and under which contain content including, but not limited to, obscenity, sexual conduct, sexual intercourse, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender discordance.”
Minors can no longer check out these books. The policy excludes biology, anatomy or religious texts.
Prattville has been the epicenter of book challenges and bans that have spread statewide in the last year. A group, Clean Up Alabama, has targeted library books as being “inappropriate” for children.
Angie Hayden, one of the co-founders of competing group Read Freely Alabama, told AL.com that when the board implemented the new policies, she knew “our fears had been justified, and it is now to the point where we feel something must be done just to protect people’s rights in the library.”
“We just see that the collection is going to be gutted of books that young adults and adults have a right to read,” Hayden said.
Besides a reversal of the policies, Hayden wants to see books returned to their original designated categories.
Many of the books challenged in the Prattville library have mature themes, such as sex and graphic language, for young adults, but some non-sexually explicit books for children were challenged. Many of these books include LGBTQ characters or themes. Several books were moved to the adult section, and the fate of other books remains to be seen.
The Alabama Political Reporter reported Tuesday that the Prattville library pulled 60 books for review, including titles previously challenged, which, according to board policy, should have remained on shelves for five years.
Most of the Autauga-Prattville library board resigned last year in protest of county commission appointments to the board without board approval. The remaining board member left in February and refused to approve the new policies.
Former library director Andrew Foster also is suing the board. Foster was fired for recording meetings and providing information to a reporter under the Alabama Open Records Act. The Elmore Autauga News reported Tuesday that the board is seeking a settlement.
Alabama Library Association president Craig Scott said the Prattville library policy is “the latest in a concerning trend of far-right efforts to suppress books that reflect perspectives they don’t agree with in communities across the country.”
Scott referred to potential state legislation that would criminalize librarians for “obscene” material in libraries.
“As state legislators rush to expand on the policies put in place in Prattville, it is crucial that the courts make clear that in our democracy, you cannot discriminate or restrict the freedom to read,” Scott said.
According to the complaint, the Alabama Library Association lost revenue from its annual convention because it “had to divert resources away from goals” including planning for the event, resulting in less registrations.
Senior counsel Will Bardwell of the nonprofit legal group Democracy Forward said the library board’s policy “is one of the very worst offenders that we’ve seen.”
Bardwell said the policy is “particularly shocking when you start thinking of all the books that could fall within its scope.” Bardwell named books like “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which discusses rape and “1984,” which includes a sexual relationship integral to the plot, as potentially banned books under this policy.
The introduction to the preliminary injunction motion begins with a quote from Scout Finch, one of the main characters from “To Kill A Mockingbird”: “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
Democracy Forward is representing the plaintiffs along with local civil rights attorney Wiggins Childs. Bardwell and senior counsel Jessica Morton told AL.com the policy is “shockingly” overbroad in comparison to other cases they’ve worked on in other states.
Morton said the board policy is alarming and that “the freedom to read is fundamental and foundational to a successful democracy.”
“These are policies that are sledgehammers,” Morton said. “They’re not aimed at targeting against obscenity. They’re capturing essentially any book that features any person with gender of any sort.”
Bardwell said the government can’t stamp out controversial ideas.
“Public libraries, maybe more than any public institution, are supposed to be places where people can go in their formative years and find new ideas about how to explain the world around them,” Bardwell said.
