AUSTIN, Texas — A federal appeals court has deemed a Texas law that instituted a book-rating system unconstitutional.
On Wednesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans blocked the controversial Texas law, which would have required booksellers to rate books, from going into effect, saying that it violated the First Amendment.
House Bill 900, dubbed the Restricting Explicit and Adult-Designated Educational Resources Act (READER), was passed during the 88th regular legislative session. It would've banned public school libraries from acquiring explicit books and other materials. The law would have required book vendors to assign ratings to books based on depictions or references to sex.
Under HB 900, booksellers wouldn't be allowed to sell any books deemed sexually explicit to school districts, and districts wouldn't be allowed to buy from booksellers that don't use state-mandated ratings to classify the books.
Books that were rated “sexually explicit” would be removed from shelves. Books that referenced sex but are part of a required school curriculum would be rated “sexually relevant” and parental permission would have been required for students to check them out.
The owners of BookPeople in Austin and Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, along with three national trade associations and a legal defense organization, were the plaintiffs who originally sued the state, claiming that READER violated their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Texas appealed after the initial ruling from a district court that ruled the law unconstitutional.
In July 2023, Blue Willow Bookshop owner Valerie Koehler told KVUE she felt the law - which went into effect in September 2023- was too vague. She was concerned it would put her bookstore out of business because the law would have required booksellers to rate books before they sold them to schools by April 1, and selling books to schools makes up a large portion of her business.
"It validates our concerns and it is our hope that yes, we will not have to rate books. Yeah, it feels good actually," Koehler said.
The Fifth Circuit court affirmed the ruling of a lower court, citing that plaintiffs in the case presented a conclusive argument that the law violated their First Amendment rights.
"We AFFIRM the district court’s grant of the preliminary injunction as to Commissioner Morath. We VACATE the preliminary injunction against Chairs Wong and Ellis and REMAND to the district court with instructions to dismiss Plaintiffs’ suit against them. We DENY AS MOOT the State’s motion for stay pending appeal," the ruling stated.
KVUE reached out to the author of the bill, State Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Frisco). He provided the following statement:
“The United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit has reached an opinion which removes accountability for book vendors while allowing the library state standards to remain intact. I am disappointed by this decision in part, as book vendors have an obligation to be aware of the content they are distributing, especially if that content is sexually explicit material into the hands of school children. Thankfully, the state library standards, which are the first ever of their kind, remain Texas law, as the court opinion states, “the library standards are not an issue.” These standards, passed and approved by TSLAC and SBOE, create guardrails to empower parents, prevent sexually explicit materials, and improve school district transparency. I call on the Office of Attorney General to appeal this decision to the United States Supreme Court and in the meantime look forward on how Texas can improve vendor accountability with other legislative solutions next session. I will not stop fighting to protect Texas schoolchildren from sexually explicit material.”