Imagine that you decided to go to your local library to check out a book but you couldn’t find it on the shelf. You ask the librarian for help locating it, but they inform you it’s not available—not because someone else has checked it out, but because the government has physically removed it after deciding they don’t want you to read it.
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This isn’t the plot of a dystopian novel, it’s the reality that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed in its recent decision to not hear arguments in the book ban case: Leila Green Little et al. v. Llano County. In leaving the Fifth Circuit ruling in place, SCOTUS effectively granted state and local governments in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas the authority to determine what materials you can and cannot read. This means people in these states do not have the same First Amendment rights as the rest of the country. And that should raise alarm for everyone.
In the U.S., efforts to remove books from school and public libraries have existed for many decades, but in the past few years the intensity has escalated. PEN America counted 6,870 instances of book bans last school year, up from 156 challenges to library, school, and university materials just five years ago. Recently, the issue seems to have taken a back seat in the news, but the efforts show no signs of slowing down.
In upholding Little v. Llano, SCOTUS opened the door for book bans to proliferate even more, leaving us little legal recourse to stop their implementation. Librarians may be the only line of defense we have left, and many of us have already lost our jobs for refusing to pull materials. We are disturbed to think how many more of our colleagues around the country will be put in this precarious position.
Nobody ever believes this will happen to them. They look at us, two librarians in Louisiana and Texas, and assume these battles are somehow unique to our ZIP codes. But that’s the point. The architects of these censorship campaigns—national conservative political groups—test their most aggressive tactics in small, rural places they believe the rest of the country will write off. What feels distant to some is the trial run for everyone. And now, after the Supreme Court refused to intervene, the message is unmistakable: If they can get away with it here, it’s coming to your libraries too. What’s happening on our shelves isn’t a local quirk, it’s a national stress test of your rights.
Read more: Banning Books Isn’t Just Morally Wrong. It’s Also Unhealthy
To be clear, the movement to ban books has never been about protecting our children. It’s about censorship, and about controlling what young people are allowed to learn and understand. Book bans routinely target stories dealing with race, racism, gender, and sexuality, especially those written by Black and LGBTQ authors. When these titles disappear from shelves, it’s an attempt to erase experiences, reshape history, and force a narrow worldview onto entire communities.
The First Amendment is a pillar of our democracy, yet in Llano County, when officials announced that the Supreme Court would not hear the case, book banners broke into cheers. They applauded the loss of rights and the shrinking of freedoms, celebrating a moment that chips away at the constitutional protections meant to safeguard us all.
In recent months, we have been touring the U.S. to attend screenings of The Librarians, the documentary from Oscar-nominated director Kim A. Snyder that follows our experiences grappling with calls to remove books from our libraries. The film weaves together our perspectives and exposes how these book ban initiatives are part of a concerted effort led by national conservative groups like Moms for Liberty. They have infiltrated classrooms and school boards in nearly every state, with some attempts more successful than others.
We know book bans are unpopular. More than seven in 10 voters oppose attempts to remove books from public libraries, and that number crosses party lines. We’ve seen this in action as we’ve toured. Our requests for screening come evenly from red and blue states, proving Americans agree freedom to read is a shared value.
In nearly every sold-out theater where we have screened the film—from Dallas to Des Moines, Shreveport, and Anchorage—we have heard from audiences who want to know what they can do to ensure their rights are protected and fight back.
Our response: Speak up now. Protecting the right to read starts at the local level by raising our voices, casting our votes and—if you can’t find a candidate who represents your values—running for the school or library boards yourself. Trust us when we say that the fight will arrive at your doorstep long before you’re ready for it.
Read more: The Heavy Cost of Banning Books About Black Children
President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said: “Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book.”
Let’s take President Eisenhower’s words to heart. We must all stay vigilant.
Authoritarian regimes gain power when citizens stop paying attention. Visit your local library, check out books, and keep reading. If we stay unified and informed, we can ensure reading without restriction remains the foundation of our democracy and a fundamental freedom for all.
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