Book ban clears Wyoming House
Laramie, and librarians across the state, say the ban would limit access to important works and fall afoul of constitutional free speech protections. Lawmakers say they’re protecting children.
The Wyoming House voted Friday to pass a bill banning what it defines as “sexually explicit” books and materials from school libraries. The legislation would also require public libraries to re-shelve any books meeting the bill’s definition to the adult section.
Laramie has railed against the proposal since it was first drafted last fall.
“It is clear from the hundreds of emails that we have all received that our constituents do not support book bans,” Rep. Trey Sherwood (D-Laramie) said last week on the House floor. “[They] believe that parents, not legislators, should have the freedom to decide what their kids read.”
Language arts teachers warned the bill will limit access to important young adult literature and classics, while others warned the bill might run head-first into First Amendment challenges.
Rep. Ken Chestek (D-Laramie), a law professor at the University of Wyoming, has objected to the bill on the grounds that it moves beyond the Miller test — the legal bar for declaring a work “obscene.”
That test stems from a Supreme Court ruling and is mirrored in Wyoming law. The court found obscenity can be banned without violating the First Amendment as long as the work lacks “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.” If a book has any of those values, however, it’s protected by the First Amendment.
For decades, that test and other free speech precedents have shielded books and other artwork about sex, LGBTQ+ stories, and witchcraft.
House Bill 10, which was passed out of the House with a 48-13 vote Friday morning, goes beyond the Miller test, defining “sexually explicit” material as “any depiction or description, in any written, pictorial or electronic form” of “penetration,” oral sex, and various other sex acts.
“This is a very narrow definition,” Rep. Jayme Lien (R-Casper) said when she carried the bill on the House floor for its introductory vote last week. “It makes it so that the books that are being targeted are intentionally sexually obscene.”
When the legislation appeared before the House Judiciary Committee last week, librarians from around the state turned out to oppose it.
“House Bill 10 would restrict the materials that are fully protected speech, including literature, art, health information, and works that reflect the lives of our diverse Wyoming residents,” Sublette County Library Assistant Director Judi Boyce said. “Labeling these materials as pornographic does not change their constitutional status.”
Supporters of the legislation have objected to the “book ban” label, arguing the bill requires that books are reshelved in the adult section rather than removed altogether. Opponents have highlighted that school libraries, which are also affected by the legislation, have no adult section and will be forced to remove books from their circulation entirely.
Others have argued that even in public libraries, where the bill would remove certain books from the children’s sections, but not the building, still constitutes a ban.
Book bans and challenges are on the rise in the United States. A disproportionate number target books that highlight LGBTQ+ and other minority stories.
House Bill 10 will now head to the Senate for further consideration.
We could get rid of a lot of bad legislation if those voting for approval of it had to foot the bill to defend it in court. Not the State, but the actual legislators with their own lawyers.
Don't worry. We'll get around their fascist agenda, that is to create a populace of ignorant sheep. Our spirits and imaginations are much bigger than their small-minded, racist, sexist, xenophobic, vanilla, backward, monotheistic power maneuvers. They will go down in history as the evil ones.