Proposed law would hold librarians liable for distributing ‘obscene’ materials
The Arkansas Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill on Monday to create a process that would hold municipal or school library staff criminally liable for furnishing or distributing items deemed “obscene” to minors. The bill now goes to the full Arkansas Senate for approval.
Republican State Senator Dan Sullivan of Jonesboro, the sponsor of the legislation, said this bill seeks to codify a system that protects children from receiving items deemed “harmful” from school and public libraries.
Critics of the bill have raised concerns about the bill violating freedom of speech and the first amendment of the U.S. constitution.
Items considered to be harmful to minors, are defined by the bill and Arkansas code, to mean a “material or performance that depicts or describes nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or sadomasochistic abuse.”
Currently, under Arkansas law, librarians are exempt from criminal punishment for distributing material deemed “harmful to minors.” If the bill is signed it to law, they would no longer be exempt and could be held criminally liable.
The bill states that a person who knowingly distributes an item with any obscene printed or written material, to a minor, could be convicted of a Class D felony.
The proposed law would create an appeals process for individual members of the public to challenge items in public and school libraries. If an item is challenged, the law would require schools and libraries to form a committee to review the material and decide.
The complaint would then either go to the school board or local elected officials to make a final determination on whether to remove the item from libraries.
The bill requires the meetings where these determinations are made to be held in public.
Sullivan said the purpose of this process is to allow communities to decide on these issues at the local level, leaving the power to remove books and other material from public libraries to elected officials.