July 30 (UPI) — A new law that was set to go into effect Tuesday and allow for librarians to be criminally charged for offering “harmful” materials has been blocked by a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks granted a preliminary injunction Saturday after a coalition of libraries across the state filed a lawsuit stating the law, signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, violated their constitutional rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
Brooks also denied a petition by defendants in Crawford County to have the case dismissed, court records obtained by UPI show.
The judge appeared to question the necessity of the law, noting that Arkansas “already criminalizes providing obscenity to minors” and that librarians have often had safe harbor of prosecuted for disseminating materials claimed to be obscene.
“That immunity has not been questioned since the Arkansas Supreme Court found the exemption ‘reasonable on its face’ nearly four decades ago,” Brooks wrote, adding that it protected librarians from “meritless claims.”
“For more than a century, librarians have curated the collections of public libraries to serve diverse viewpoints, helped high school students with their term papers, made recommendations to book clubs, tracked down obscure books for those devoted to obscure pastimes, and mesmerized roomfuls of children with animated storytelling,” Brooks wrote.
“So, the passage of Act 372 prompts a few simple, yet unanswered questions. For example: What has happened in Arkansas to cause its communities to lose faith and confidence in their local librarians?”
Brooks said that, though public libraries are overseen by state and local governments, they are “not to be mistaken for simply an arm of the state.”