Taking a new tack in the ideological battle over what books children should be able to read, Illinois will prohibit book bans in its public schools an
Taking a new tack in the ideological battle over what books children should be able to read, Illinois will prohibit book bans in its public schools and libraries, with Gov. J.B. Pritzker calling the bill that he signed on Monday the first of its kind.
The law, which takes effect next year, was the Democratic-controlled state’s response to a sharp rise in book-banning efforts across the country, especially in Republican-led states, where lawmakers have made it easier to remove library books that political groups deemed objectionable.
“While certain hypocritical governors are banning books written by L.G.B.T.Q. authors, but then claiming censorship when the media fact-checks them, we are showing the nation what it really looks like to stand up for liberty,” Mr. Pritzker, a Democrat, said at a bill-signing event at the Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago.
The law directs public libraries in the state to adopt or write their own versions of a library bill of rights such as the American Library Association’s, which asserts that “Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.”
Libraries that don’t comply could lose state funding, according to the bill.
Governor Pritzker appeared to call out, though not by name, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Republican who has staked his 2024 presidential candidacy in part on his status as a driver of Conservative policies addressing cultural issues.
Governor DeSantis supported state laws aimed, at least in part, at limiting access to some reading materials in public schools. Books targeted to be removed have dealt primarily with L.G.B.T.Q. and social justice themes, with some groups objecting to materials on gender and sexuality in books that schoolchildren could read.
Other states, including Georgia and Kentucky, have followed suit with laws that could make it easier to lodge complaints about specific books and influence library or education boards, according to EveryLibrary, a political action committee that advocates for increased public library funding and tracks proposed book regulation laws across the country.
“Libraries are not in the book banning business, but they are becoming sites of censorship by groups that are oftentimes not even reading the books,” Tracie D. Hall, executive director of the American Library Association, said in an interview.
Efforts to censor books doubled in 2022 over the previous year, according to a report of the library association, which counted 1,269 attempts to remove books and other reading materials.
The report, released in March, stated that the “vast majority” of materials targeted for removal are about or are written by people of color or members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community.
Even librarians have found themselves targeted by groups seeking to pull materials from shelves. Many have been “chased out” of their jobs, according to Ms. Hall. The association’s fund to support librarians facing job losses, she said, is constantly depleted.
The battle over book removals is unfolding in court as well. Penguin Random House, a publisher, and PEN America, a free-speech organization, sued a public school district in Florida last month and accused it of violating the First Amendment by removing titles over “their disagreement with the ideas expressed in those books.”
Monday’s bill signing may have opened a new front.
“Across the nation, when this was even introduced out of Illinois, there was a huge wave of conversation and dialogue about how important it is that we see governors and that we see lawmakers engaged in this conversation,” Ms. Hall said.
A similar anti-book ban bill is making its way through the New Jersey Legislature.
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