Donnelly Public Library, one of the plaintiffs named in the lawsuit, converted to an adult-only library in May last year because it is too small to host an adult-only section, and it lacks the resources to review all the books in its collection to assess whether they fall under HB 710.
Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Sourcebooks filed a lawsuit on Tuesday alongside three authors, a public library district, the US writers’ body the Authors Guild, a teacher, two students and two parents.
Given that the law requires libraries to “take reasonable steps” to restrict under-18s’ access to “harmful” books, libraries have to remove the texts from the library entirely, establish “fully monitored, cordoned-off” adults-only sections, or convert to an “adult-only” library.
The law allows private citizens to file complaints, putting librarians “in the untenable position of having to guess whether any member of the public might file an objection to a book whose message they disagree with” by claiming the text falls within the law’s definition of harmful.
Publishers sue state of Idaho over library book bans Lawsuit says its definition of ‘harmful materials’ forbidden to under 18s is ‘vague and overbroad’ and puts librarians at risk.
