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AUPresses Joins in Amicus Brief

AUPresses Joins in Amicus Brief

August 2023

NISO Member News

AUPresses Fights Texas Overreach in Libraries

In August, the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) joined with other like-minded groups to file an amicus curiae brief with the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, asking the court to enjoin the implementation of a new Texas law, formerly known as HB 900, that requires the rating of books and other materials according to sexual content if they are to be sold to school libraries.

The formal announcement included the following closing paragraph:

As a community of publishers dedicated to intellectual freedom, diversity and inclusion, and the advance of human knowledge, AUPresses also recognizes that this Texas law rides a rising tide of book challenges and bans, state legislative attacks on the freedom to read, and the unjust—and in some cases life-threatening—vilification of librarians across the US. It represents yet another unconstitutional incursion by politically motivated state legislators into school governance, overriding the rights of parents, schools, librarians, and teachers to evaluate materials and make decisions that best meet the needs of their own individual communities.

Breaking News Update

On Friday, September 1, 2023, a federal judge granted several Texas booksellers a temporary injunction to halt enforcement of House Bill 900, a new law set to go into effect that day which would have banned sexually explicit materials from schools and required vendors to rate each book they sell to a school with regard to the book's inclusion of such subjects.