(Missourinet) – The Missouri ACLU and the Missouri Library Association are suing the state over a law that’s caused libraries to remove hundreds of books.
The suit is challenging the law signed last year that caused school districts to order the removal of hundreds of titles from library shelves, in fear that they may be charged with providing “explicit sexual material” to minors. The ACLU calls it a violation of students’ First Amendment rights and calls the law ‘vague language that invites the government to intrude on actions that happen outside of the school.’
The measure was sponsored by Republican Senator Rick Brattin, who says some school libraries had books containing “graphic, pornographic material of sex acts.” But the new law has led to the removal of some literary classics, including Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “Maus,” a graphic novel using cats and mice to depict the Holocaust. The new law is a class A misdemeanor, punishable by a penalty of up to one year in jail and a 2-thousand-dollar fine.
