Image credit: publishersweekly
HB 900, or the READER Act (Restricting Explicit and Adult Designated Educational Resources), was passed in Texas on June 12 and is likely to take effect from September 1. It was passed by the 88th Texas Legislature and signed by Governor Greg Abbott into law. According to the law, book vendors are mandated to assign ratings to books as per the sexual content present in the same. If the book is marked as “sexually explicit”, it will be removed from the school library bookshelves. Students who want to read books with such ratings will have to take consent from their parents.
The ratings will be thoroughly reviewed by the state official, and if they find anything to be incorrect, they can change the same. Also, booksellers who don’t comply with the law will be banned from taking contracts from schools.
The Texas law was highly discouraged by the booksellers. Some of them even filed a lawsuit against it in the federal court. According to the booksellers, such laws violate free speech and limit the book options for students. They think that the law is unclear, unrealistic, unconstitutional and violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Booksellers also believe that rating each book will be a burden of work for them.
The plaintiffs involved in the case included two bookstores: BookPeople in Austin and Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, the Association of American Publishers, the Authors Guild, the American Booksellers Association and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
Charley Rejsek, CEO of BookPeople, said:
Booksellers should not be put in the position of broadly determining what best serves all Texan communities.
He further highlighted the fact that each community is different, with different needs.
Setting local guidelines is not the government’s job either. It is the local librarian’s and teacher’s job,” he added.
It’s also predicted by law critics that this could be a way to target books focused on LGBTQ+ or related subject matter. Val Benavidez, executive director of Texas Freedom Network, said:
We all want our kids to be accepted, embraced, and able to see themselves and their families in public school curriculums and books.
On August 18, a Texas federal judge, Alan D. Albright, heard the first oral arguments made to block the HB 900 law in Austin, Texas. However, Texas attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit two days before the first hearing (August 16). Hence, judge Albright asked for extra time before making the final decision. The second hearing took place on August 28.
Many critical points and arguments were discussed in this second hearing. Blue Willow Bookshop owner Valerie Koehler highlighted the impact of the law on their sales already. Koehler said how Katy Independent School District in the suburban area of Houston denied buying new books from them till they got rated. Apparently, the school has been a significant customer of the bookshop for the past 5 to 7 years. They have bought books worth $200,000 and more from Blue Willow. In such instances, their denial of buying the books will affect the overall sales of the bookshop.
Albright suggested that the law could be met with technicality by the sellers. He said that sellers can give “no rating” to the books so they can be reviewed and corrected by the TEA, forcing them to rate books on their own. However, the plaintiff’s attorney spoke about how such corrections can result in a ban for vendors from selling the books to the schools. “If the state wants to rate books, they should do it themselves,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney. Another ruling is expected to take place by this week.
Navkiran Dhaliwal is a seasoned content writer with 10+ years of experience. When she's not writing, she can be found cooking up a storm or spending time with her dog, Rain.