A federal judge has ruled a library system in Crawford County must relocate books previously put in a restricted section.
In 2022, the Crawford County Library created a “social section,” a restricted group of high shelves within the adult section of the library. In total, the sections contain about 240 books. Many are children's picture books dealing with LGBTQ+ themes, disability, gay marriage or world religions.
Patrons in Crawford County sued the library and county employees over the move, saying that hiding the books was a content restriction that violated their First Amendment right to receive information. On Monday, U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes agreed, ordering the library to put the books back in general circulation.
The library system initially made the decision to relocate books in 2022 after a display of LGBTQ+ themed books in the library upset some members of the community. Married couple Tamara and Jeffery Hamby sent a letter to the Crawford County Quorum Court and the county judge about the display. The letter said the library was pushing an “agenda," described as “progressive woke ideology normalizing and equating homosexual and transsexual lifestyles with heterosexual family units.”
Tamara Hamby met with then-Library Director Deidre Grzymala about removing the books. Hamby told her “a compromise needed to be reached because the side that wanted the books gone was getting madder and madder and madder.”
Hamby said Grzymala was crying during the conversation. At a board meeting, Grzymala presented the social section as “compromise.”
Hamby was then chosen to lead the library board by fellow board members. Grzymala resigned with a $40,000 severance package. She now works at the University of Arkansas library.
The “social section” contained many children's picture books. One called “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding" is about a child attending a gay wedding. Library Board member Kaelin Schaper called the book “inappropriate.”
Another book called "Llama Glamarama" is about a dancing llama. It was described by another board member as trying to push “social justice.” Other books in the section included “Who Believes What,” a book about different religions and “Like Me,” a book about a child who uses a wheelchair.
Hamby spent her tenure as board president fighting to keep books in the social section. Members of the community came to board meetings asking for books to be relocated to their original places in the children's section.
Library patrons filed suit saying the existence of the social section violated their First Amendment rights. The suit was filed by attorney Brian Meadors. In the early 2000s, he won a suit over books in the "Harry Potter" series being removed from the library in the nearby Cedarville School District. The suit argues the book removals were a “content restriction,” meaning they were only removed because they discussed subjects board members disagreed with.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes agreed.
“It is indisputable that the creation and maintenance of the social section was motivated in substantial part by a desire to impede users’ access to books containing viewpoints that are unpopular or controversial in Crawford County,” Holmes said in the ruling.
He said government officials cannot remove books that they personally disagree with. He referenced Texas v. Johnson, a case ruling that it is a person's First Amendment right to burn the American flag.
The ruling also ordered “defendants refrain from coercing Library staff into violating this injunction.”
