Supposed censorship of library books took off as a faux-major issue during the Biden’s Handlers’ Administration. This was almost entirely in response to local efforts to remove LGBTQWERTY+- books from public and school libraries, or to at least place age-appropriate limits on them.

Among the most commonly banned books of all time has been Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. That beloved book has weathered fire from the left and right. Some on the right have wanted to ban it because it depicts a child—Huck Finn—often outsmarting adults. Much of the left thinks the entire book racist, which is odd considering Twain labors mightily to depict slaves as human beings worthy of kindness.

What remains most odd is removing a book from library shelves, or simply applying age restrictions, isn’t censorship by dictionary definition or in practical application. In America, no one is preventing authors from writing whatever they please, nor are publishers prevented from printing a book or book sellers from selling it. There is no prior restraint. This is a happy result of the First Amendment, unlike anything enjoyed by any other nation, including England. Anyone, or any parent, can buy such books at will, and outlets like Amazon make that fast and easy.

Libraries do not have unlimited budgets or unlimited shelf space. They try to serve the needs of their communities and try to stock titles of interest, which means librarians generally pay close attention to local political trends. Unless, that is, those librarians are on a mission, which usually means they’re staunch Democrats. In that case they tend to see their mission as teaching those myrmidon Normal Americans what they ought to think and praise.

One such library, according to Jane Coleman at Legal Insurrection, is in Llano County, TX:

To recap briefly, the conflict between county residents and library officials began in 2021, when, responding to public complaints, the Llano County library removed 17 controversial books from its shelves, including these children’s books: Freakboy; Freddy the Farting Snowman; and Being Jazz: My Life As a Transgender Teen.  A group of patrons then sued, alleging the library had illegally banned the books.

The objecting patrons had two wins under their belts, in 2023 a federal district court ruled they had the right under the Free Speech Clause to have those books, and presumably any other books they preferred, available at the library. And in 2024, a panel of the Fifth Circuit upheld that ruling. Then things went wrong.

On appeal, however, a full panel of the Fifth Circuit [Mississippi, Louisana and Texas] ruled 10-7 that there is “no such right” under the First Amendment: “It is one thing to tell the government it cannot stop you from receiving a book,” Judge Stuart Duncan, a Trump appointee, wrote on behalf of the panel.  “The First Amendment protects your right to do that.” “It is another thing for you to tell the government which books it must keep in the library. The First Amendment does not give you the right to demand that.”

The court also held that the library’s book selections are government speech, similar to a city museum’s selection of which paintings to feature in an exhibit—and therefore not subject to a Free Speech challenge.

This was an eminently practical, and constitutional, ruling. The right to freedom of speech does not require government to buy books for citizens, or stock libraries with them on demand, any more than the Second Amendment requires government to buy guns and ammunition for citizens.

Graphic: US Supreme Court. Public Domain

Unsatisfied, the patrons petitioned the Supreme Court, which denied cert. The Fifth Circuit’s decision stands. Because the Supreme Court didn’t decide the case, the ruling applies only to the Fifth Circuit, but is now established precedent which may be referred to and honored elsewhere, despite not applying to the entire nation.

As Judge Duncan put it when he told everyone to “take a deep breath”: “No one is banning (or burning) books. If a disappointed patron can’t find a book in the library, he can order it online, buy it from a bookstore, or borrow it from a friend.”

Quite so. In the Fifth Circuit, and elsewhere, librarians will continue as they always have, to remove old books, buy new books and endeavor to avoid becoming party to lawsuits from constitutionally misinformed and entitled patrons.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.