Supreme Court Declines to Hear Appeal in Library Book Removal Case
Earlier this year, we reported on a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals case that dismissed a First Amendment lawsuit brought by library patrons against a Texas library after the library removed 17 books because of their content. Two of the books the library removed were "Larry the Farting Leprechaun" by Jane Bexley and "My Butt is so Noisy!" by Dawn McMillian. The patrons argued that the library's removal of books based on their content violated their right to receive information under the free speech clause. The district court agreed and issued a preliminary injunction against the library, but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the "right of information" does not apply to a public library's decision to remove books because the library's collection decisions are government speech and not subject to free speech protections under the First Amendment. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals also rejected the patron's claims that the library's removal of the books constituted "book banning" because the patrons could still purchase the books from a bookstore or online.
The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and on December 8, 2025, the Supreme Court declined to hear the library patron's appeal, allowing the Fifth Circuit's decision to dismiss the First Amendment lawsuit to stand.
The Fifth Circuit's decision was a departure from the U.S. Supreme Court's 1982 decision in Island Trees Union Free Sch. Dist. v. Pico, which held that the First Amendment restricts libraries from removing books simply because they dislike the ideas in those books.
The American Library Association (ALA) had filed an "amicus" (friend of the court) brief in the case urging the Supreme Court to hear the library patron's appeal of the Fifth Circuit's decision. You can read the ALA's take on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to deny certiorari, which allows the Fifth Circuit's decision to stand here.
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