New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill into law on Monday prohibiting what he calls book banning in schools.
Under the law, the Freedom to Read Act, students have a right to “explore and engage with differing perspectives,” and school and public libraries “play a unique role in promoting intellectual freedom, providing equitable access to learning resources, and promoting democracy by providing service to all.”
“Across the nation, we have seen attempts to suppress and censor the stories and experiences of others,” said Murphy, a Democrat.
“I’m proud to amplify the voices of our past and present, as there is no better way for our children to prepare for the future than to read freely.”
The legislation requires the establishment of a review system to address concerns over library content while providing legal protection against civil and criminal lawsuits against staff for complying with the law.
The American Library Association (ALA) said that between January and August 2024, there were 414 attempts to restrict content in libraries, a decline from 2023 when there were 694 attempts.
Though there was a decline, the number still exceeds the pre-2020 total, the ALA said.
Several states have taken up investigations into school libraries where books that had sexual content were available.
In 2023, the Louisiana attorney general’s office released an audit of school library books concluding that children had access to content that is age-inappropriate.
Among the books and graphic novels listed in the report are “Fun Home,” by Alison Bechdel; “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” by Maia Kobabe; “Blankets,” by Craig Thompson; and “Lawn Boy,” by Jonathan Evison.
Each of these books describes and portrays explicit sex acts. In “Gender Queer,” “Fun Home,” and “Blankets,” there are graphic illustrations of sexual activity. In “Gender Queer,” the characters are minors.
Then-Attorney General Jeff Landry, who is now Louisiana’s governor, didn’t call for banning the books but recommended a system in which parents could choose and approve of which books their children check out of the library.
Tiffany Justice, co-founder of the parental rights advocacy group Moms for Liberty, criticized the New Jersey legislation as political posturing and pushed back against the allegation that book banning is taking place nationwide.
“No one’s banning any books,” she told The Epoch Times. “Write the book, print the book, publish the book, sell the book, and put the book in a public library. What we’re talking about is a public school library.”
Children don’t have unlimited access to the internet when at school, and they shouldn’t have access to books with graphic sexual content, she said.
She said the legislation strays from real issues, such as decreased reading proficiency rates in the United States.
