The Supreme Court refuses to hear an appeal in the Texas book ban case that allows officials to remove unwanted books from libraries

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal of a free speech case in Texas that allowed local officials to remove books deemed objectionable from public libraries.

The case stemmed from a 2022 lawsuit filed by a group of residents in rural Llano County over the removal from the public library of more than a dozen books that dealt with gender, race and sexuality, as well as humorously touching on topics such as flatulence.

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A lower federal appeals court ruled that the removal of the books did not violate constitutional protections for free speech.

The issue was closely watched by publishers and librarians across the country. Free speech rights groups criticized the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case.

The Texas case has already been used to ban books in other areas of the country, said Ellie Brinkley, an attorney in charge of PEN America’s U.S. free speech programs.

“Letting the Fifth Circuit rule stand erodes fundamental principles of free speech and allows state and local governments to exercise ideological control over people with impunity,” Brinkley said. “The government has no place to tell people what they can and cannot read.”

Sam Helmick, president of the American Library Association, said the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case “threatens to turn government libraries into centers of indoctrination rather than protecting them as centers of open inquiry, undermining the First Amendment right to read without the constraints of viewpoint-based censorship.”

The Texas case began when a group of residents asked the county library commission to remove the book collection from circulation. The local commission ordered librarians to comply and a separate group of residents filed a lawsuit to keep the books on the shelves.

Llano County, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of the Texas capital of Austin, has a population of about 20,000 people. Most are white and conservative, with deep ties to agriculture and deer hunting.

Book titles originally ordered to be removed included “Social Class: The Origins of Our Discontent” by Isabel Wilkerson; “They Called Themselves the KKK: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group,” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti; “In the Night Kitchen” by Maurice Sendak; “It’s Totally Normal: Changing Bodies, Growth, Sex, and Sexual Health” by Robbie H. Harris; and Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teenager by Jazz Jennings.

Other titles include Gene Pixley’s “Larry the Farting Leprechaun” and “My Butt is So Noisy!” By Dawn McMillan.

A federal judge ordered the district to reclaim some of the books in 2023, but that decision was overturned earlier this year by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

The county at one point briefly considered closing its public libraries rather than putting books back on shelves after a federal judge’s initial order.

In its May 23 order, the appeals court’s majority opinion said the decision to remove a book from the library shelf did not constitute a ban on the books.

“No one bans (or burns) books. If a frustrated patron cannot find a book in a library, he or she can order it online, buy it at a bookstore or borrow it from a friend,” the appeals court opinion said.

Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham, the county’s top official, did not immediately respond to an email to his office seeking comment.

Hillel Italy contributed from New York City.