Libraries and schools across the country are experiencing unprecedented levels of attempts to ban or remove books from their shelves. I Love Libraries will continue to raise awareness by highlighting attempts to censor library materials, as well as efforts by librarians, parents, students, and concerned citizens to push back against them. This update includes news from Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, and Florida.
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Fired Arkansas librarian gets payday
A Saline County, Arkansas, librarian who was fired from her job for not acquiescing to Republican demands to hide books they didn’t like, has prevailed in a lawsuit she filed against the county, reports the Arkansas Times.
In October 2023, after months of controversy and harassment over the placement of books on gender and race, librarian Patty Hector was fired by Saline County Judge Matt Brumley after the all-Republican Quorum Court stripped the power to hire and fire library directors from the county’s Library Board, which had declined to take action, and gave it to the county judge.
The American Civil Liberties Union took up her case in February 2025, filing a federal lawsuit against the county, alleging Hector’s First Amendment rights had been trampled when she was retaliated against because of her public stance against the censorship efforts.
In a written statement, Brumley said he disagreed with the lawsuit but decided to settle Hector’s lawsuit rather than “spend years in a costly legal battle at the expense of taxpayers.” He awarded Hector $225,000 in damages and $50,000 for legal fees.
“Patty Hector stood up for the idea that censorship is wrong and that libraries serve all members of their communities, not politicians,” said John Williams, the legal director for the ACLU in Arkansas. “For that, she paid an enormous personal price. This settlement provides meaningful relief for Patty. It should also serve as a warning. Public employees have constitutional rights, and political disagreement is not a license to punish them for protected speech.”
Tennessee librarian fired after refusing to remove banned books sues library district
A Tennessee librarian is suing her former employer after being fired for refusing to relocate LGBTQ+ books, reports WPLN News.
Luanne James, the former director of Rutherford County Library System, is suing the system six months after she was fired for refusing to relocate LGBTQ+-related books. James filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on September 23 in the U.S. District Court in Nashville. She’s claiming that Rutherford County’s library board wrongfully terminated her in March, violating discrimination laws and her First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
In March, the library’s board voted 8–3 to oust James after she refused an order to relocate more than 100 books from the children’s section to the adult’s section. The suit singles out one board member who has a long history of bias against members of the LGBTQ+ community. According to the complaint, once he joined the board in January 2023, he began flagging books that he determined promoted gender confusion. The targeted literature included phrases like, “nonbinary teens,” “diverse children in urban setting,” “diversity and inclusion,” and “gay rights movement.” James said the board member also directed her to compile a list of people who checked out books with LGBTQ+ themes, including their names, addresses, and household information. She refused the order.
James is seeking economic damages, including backpay, front pay and lost benefits, along with compensation for emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, and mental anguish.
Missouri judge hears case over book bans in schools
The Missouri Supreme Court is deliberating whether a 2022 law making it a crime for school employees to provide students with “explicit sexual material” violates constitutional free speech protections, reports the Springfield News-Leader.
The law, which was struck down by a Jackson County (Mo.) Cicuit Court judge last November, “sowed great confusion across Missouri school districts” and spurred school librarians to remove books from shelves when it was passed, attorneys representing the Missouri Association of School Librarians and Missouri Library Association wrote in their brief.
Oral arguments on September 23 focused on a decades-old U.S. Supreme Court precedent that determines what content can be considered obscenity, which is outside the bounds of what the First Amendment protects as free speech rights.
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office contends that the law falls within constitutional limits, asking the judges to overturn the circuit court’s decision and allow the case to go to trial. But an attorney representing the librarians told the judges that the law sweeps much more broadly than obscenity restrictions and therefore is unconstitutional.
Even if the court finds that the law’s definition goes beyond just barring obscenity, judges could still conclude that it does not violate constitutional free speech protections.
The court did not immediately issue its decision on September 23.
Read more in-depth coverage from the Missouri Independent’s Annalise Hanshaw here.
No more book bans: How Florida students are pushing right wingers out of school boards
Local communities in Florida are fighting back against the influence of conservative groups like Moms for Liberty in education, reports The Guardian.
In 2022, the rightwing group Moms for Liberty, founded in Florida, built an outsized influence on school boards across the country by channeling anger against mask mandates in schools. Soon, members began pressuring schools to remake their curricula along conservative ideological lines, erasing mentions of LGBTQ+ Americans, slavery, racism, and more.
Four years later, parents, students, organizers, and citizens that support the freedom to read are pushing back with success.
Progressive candidates are beating opponents backed by or aligned with Moms for Liberty in school board races across the state, and in many cases reversing gains made by the group in 2022. Of the 30 candidates Moms for Liberty supported that year, 20 have declined to seek re-election, have been defeated, or will face runoffs in November, according to the LGBTQ+ rights group Equality Florida.
Progressive organizers say the elections in Florida mark a turning point, a rejection of rightwing educational ideology in a deep-red part of a deep-red state. And, they say, the victories hold lessons for progressives campaigning on the national stage in the midterms and beyond.
“We know that a better future is possible,” said Sebastian Martinez, president of the Sarasota Next Gen Democrats, a youth organizing group that helped campaign for the county’s progressive slate. “We’ll work every day to get there.”
Take action
Alarmed by the escalating attempts to censor books? Here are six steps you can take now to protect the freedom to read.
- Follow news and social media in your community and state to keep apprised of organizations working to censor library or school materials.
- Show up for library workers at school or library board meetings and speak as a library advocate and community stakeholder who supports a parent’s right to restrict reading materials for their own child but not for all
- Help provide a safety net for library professionals as they defend intellectual freedom in their communities by giving to the LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund.
- Educate friends, neighbors, and family members about censorship and how it harms communities. Share information from Banned Books Week.
- Join the Unite Against Book Bans movement and visit our Fight Censorship page to learn what you can do to defend the freedom to read in your community
- Become a Supporter of the American Library Association and help ALA fight for libraries and everyone’s freedom to read.
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