Congressional Democrats are planning resolutions to resist book banning trends.
POLITICO reports today that it has obtained a draft copy of new resolutions, authored by congressional Democrats, that would address book bans and aims to “protect the rights of students to learn.”
Juan Perez Jr. writes:
The draft House measure cites a 1982 Supreme Court decision — Board of Education v. Pico — which ruled the First Amendment limits schools’ discretion to remove books from high school and junior high libraries, and that schools cannot limit content in a “narrowly partisan or political manner.”
The resolution further “expresses concern about the spreading problem of book banning and proliferating threats to freedom of expression in the United States” and “reaffirms the United States’ commitment to supporting writers’ freedom of expression, and the freedom of all Americans to read books without government censorship.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a sponsor of the House resolution and chair of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, spoke strongly against the trend of book banning in a statement. “The wave of book bans that has swept across our country in recent years is a direct attack on First Amendment rights and should alarm every American who believes that freedom of expression is a fundamental pillar of our democracy,” he said.
[via POLITICO]
