(Photo: KATV)
Little Rock (KATV) — An Arkansas law is now on hold after a federal judge on Saturday blocked ACT 372 from going into effect on Aug. 1. Supporters of ACT 372 said it would help children away from books lawmakers deem as harmful materials, but critics believe this law is a form of censorship that threatens to criminalize librarians.
US District Court Judge Timothy Brooks said during his ruling this law could violate the first amendment.
Central Arkansas Library System executive director, Nate Coulter told KATV many librarians around the state are taking a huge sigh of relief after the ruling was made. He said the dark cloud of going to jail is gone for the time being just for doing their jobs.
"It confirmed what a lot of us have been saying since this ideal took root in the legislator back in the winter," Coulter said. "This is censorship, it's unconstitutional, and wrongly maligns a lot of good hard working innocent people working at our libraries everyday to make sure our children are protected and are reading."
Part of ACT 372 would have banned libraries from allowing kids to check out disturbing materials and criminally charge employees who don't follow the law.
"You are essentially setting up a process that politicians decide what books should stay in the library or be moved around the library without any definition of appropriateness," he said. "The court said that was a fatal defect to not have a definition of appropriateness."
Judge Brooks said in...
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