July 15, 2022 - Collated by OIF Staff and News Editor on the Intellectual Freedom Blog

Censorship

• Sarasota County school board sued over 'obscene' library materials | WWSB (FL)
  • Man seeks court order to remove 'sexually explicit' books from schools | Patch (FL)
• Parents' Choice TN files lawsuit challenging curriculum, says law against teaching CRT | WZTV
• Oklahoma governor calls for public schools audit for potential mishandling of public funds and teaching CRT | CNN
• Amid Colchester book controversy, review of all children's material paused | NBC Connecticut
• Group demands books in Coventry Pride display be burned | Journal Inquirer (CT)
  • Burn LGBTQ+ books for children, group of mothers demands local library | Yahoo! News
• Florida atheist petitions to ban the Bible in Miami-Dade and Broward schools | Miami New Times
• Court upholds Arizona prisons' ban on explicit materials for inmates | Cronkite News
• NHCSO investigated schools for 'obscene and pornographic' books, DA found no unlawful content | WHQR Wilmington
• Display books trigger review of Sanibel library's protocols | Sanibel Island Reporter (FL)
• Independence parents divided on school board banning book over a nonbinary character | KCUR Public Radio (MO)
  • Angry parents pack meeting to sound off after Independence schools ban library book | Kansas City Star (MO)
• Parents discuss banning books at Madison School Board meeting | Clarion Ledger (MS)
• 'A slippery slope': Residents defend Dixon library following push to remove LGBTQ comics depicting sex acts | Sauk Valley News (IL)
• Bedford County library addresses concerns following protests over Pride display | WSLS (VA)
  • Treatment of recent Bedford County library display prompts comments to supervisors | News and Advance (VA)
• Some parents want controversial 'Gender Queer' removed from Barrington High School library | Daily Herald (IL)
• Movement to ban books reaches Wisconsin schools, libraries | WBAY
• Fauquier County parents clash over book censorship | Fauquier Now (VA)
  • Fauquier County parents want books removed from school over content | WUSA9
  • Some parents want Kettle Run library to remove 3 books they see as pornographic, violent | Fauquier Times
  • LETTER: Call it what it is: Censorship | Fauquier Times
• Video of Clay County father challenging contents of school book makes national headlines | News4Jax (FL)
• Pulitzer Prize-winning book on prison uprisings banned in New York prisons | Reason
• ACLU of Ohio alleges Buckeye Valley Local Schools violated a Columbus author's First Amendment right | Ideastream Public Media
• San Francisco Public Library accused of censorship, Islamophobia over mural project | CBS News
• Large crowd speaks out against books they call pornographic at Ashland Public Library | Ashland Source (OH)
  • 200 pack Ashland Public Library seeking removal of health books they see as pornographic | Ashland Times-Gazette
• Schools Put New Book Removal Procedures On Hold | The Pilot (NC)
• Dickinson County Library’s book collection questioned during board meeting | TV6 (MI)

Privacy & Cybersecurity

• In a post-Roe world, the future of digital privacy looks even grimmer | New York Times
  • Privacy advocates fear Google will be used to prosecute abortion seekers | Georgia Public Broadcasting
• Newspaper editor appeals court ruling that protects the privacy of people who want library books banned or reclassified | Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition
• Lawmakers warn end of Roe v. Wade poses threat to biometric data privacy | FindBiometrics

First Amendment, Free Speech, & Civil Liberties

• First Amendment advocates respond to a new Arizona law limiting recording of police | NPR
• 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees Kansas, rules that people have a First Amendment right to film police | Lawrence Journal-World
• The most uncomfortable secret lingering under the corporate reaction to Roe's reversal | Fast Company
• Is it legal to travel for abortion after Dobbs? | Bloomberg Law
• The new threat to good schooling for minority Americans | Washington Post
• A lawsuit against race-based teaching in Florida can proceed | WUSF
• Satanic Temple to sue Pennsylvania school district over rejection of 'After School Satan Club' | Daily Beast
• What happens when laws that suppress protests clash with our freedoms? | Virginia Mercury
• Without Obergefell, most states would have same-sex marriage bans | Pew Stateline
• ACLU files lawsuit against ICE for withholding documents related to practice of releasing people from custody prior to imminent death | ACLU

Legislation

• 10 anti-LGBTQ laws just went into effect. They all target schools | Washington Post

Access

• Court upholds Arizona prison ban on sexual, explicit content | News Times
• Publisher's lawsuit seeks to take down Internet Archive's digital lending library | World Socialist Web Site
• Libby is stuck between libraries and publishers in the e-book war | Protocol

Academic Freedom & Campus Speech

• Florida tries to shield Corcoran in 'intellectual freedom' case | Tampa Bay Times
• Florida university removes some anti-racism statements, worrying faculty | Washington Post

Journalism

• Sarasota Herald-Tribune deletes op-ed by Proud Boy wife after backlash -- but doesn't address major conflict | Mediaite

Social Media

• Klobuchar, Warren press Meta on 'censoring' of abortion posts | Axios
• A legal shield for social media is showing cracks | Politico
• What is Section 230 and how is it different than the First Amendment? | Foundation for Economic Education
• GLAAD gives social media giants poor grades over lack of protections for LGBTQ users | NPR
  • GLAAD: Social media networks fail to protect LGBTQ users | Axios

Information Literacy & Disinformation

• The fight over truth also has a red state, blue state divide | New York Times
• The sale of 2 Spanish talk radio stations may counter the spread of disinformation | NPR
• Disinformation is the next big cybersecurity threat | Security Magazine

Copyright

• Unmasking anonymous copyright infringers: Where the DMCA, First Amendment, and fair use meet | National Law Review

International News

• Twitter, challenging orders to remove content, sues India's government | New York Times
• Russia seeks to punish expats who criticize war on social media | Bloomberg
• Photos: Thousands march in Romania as law censoring LGBTQ looms | Al Jazeera
• China's surveillance state hits rare resistance from its own subjects | New York Times

Around the Web

• To fight book banning, support librarians | New York Times
• The dangerous lesson of book bans in public school libraries | Reason
• Librarians caught up in vicious anti-LGBTQ cultural book bans are quitting | Los Angeles Blade
• The new censorship fight at our public libraries | Tampa Bay Times
• What Kansas City librarians have learned since 1995's book-banning effort in Olathe | NPR
• Nampa, Idaho, school district removes over 20 books from schools | National Coalition Against Censorship
• Principal bans discussion of 'All Boys Aren't Blue' -- Scales on Censorship | School Library Journal
• Battle over sex and gender in books divides a Texas Town | Wall Street Journal
• Library trustees, commissioners aren't upholding their fiduciary duty | Daily Interlake
• Group starts recall for library board | Bonners Ferry Herald (ID)
• With another leader leaving, Vinton Public Library closes for now | Gazette (IA)
• One Small Step for Democracy in a ‘Live Free or Die’ Town | New York Timesw
• What should a queer children's book do? | New Yorker
• How Western Library became the first public library in the nation for Black Americans | Louisville Courier-Journal (KY)
• "Critical race theory" is being weaponised. What's the fuss about? | Economist
• Urban Library Trauma Study - Final Report | Urban Librarians Unite
• The far-right Christian quest for power: 'We are seeing them emboldened' | New York Times
• Newton County superintendent remains neutral amid critical race theory controversy | Covington News (GA)
• What to know about the controversy around Where the Crawdads Sing | TIME
• Teachers union wants Democrats to fight back against Republicans' critical race theory attacks | NBC News
• Montana rejects library logo over similarity to Pride flag | Valdo State Daily Times
• Fayetteville Library seeks community participation in art project celebrating banned and challenged books | KNWA (AR)

ALA News

ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF)
225 Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60601 1-800-545-2433 x4226

To sign up to receive future issues of Intellectual Freedom News, click here.
To opt out of receiving future issues of Intellectual Freedom News, click here.
To unsubscribe from all ALA emails, click here.
To review ALA's privacy policy, click here.