A federal judge on Saturday temporarily blocked enforcement of an Arkansas law that would have allowed criminal charges against librarians and booksellers for providing “harmful” materials to minors.
As reported Associated PressFederal Judge Timothy L. Brooks issued a preliminary injunction against the law.
The measure, signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year, was scheduled to take effect on August 1.
This law would also have created a new process for questioning what kinds of books are available in libraries and for requesting that certain materials — such as books related to the LGBTQ+ community — be relocated to sections of libraries or bookstores that they do not have. children access.
The lawsuit came at a time when a growing number of lawmakers in conservative states are pushing for measures to make it easier to ban or restrict access to certain books.
The number of attempts to ban or restrict books in the United States in 2022 was the highest in the 20 years that the American Library Association has been tracking such efforts.