"Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime." - Potter Stewart, dissenting in Ginzburg v . United States, 383 U.S. 463 (1966).

Created in the 1980s to combat censorship in schools, prisons, and libraries, Banned Books Week is celebrated annually the last week of September.  Despite a plethora of lawsuits defending intellectual freedom and the importance of access to materials, individuals and organizations continue to challenge books for their content and seek to remove them from libraries.  According to the American Library Association, hundreds of books are challenged every year, with varying levels of success.  Often, these books contain material or viewpoints of marginalized voices, such as LGBTQIA+ or people of color. Other challenges include profanity and sexually explicit content.

The most famous cases involving challenged books arose from censorship in schools.  For example:

• Island Trees School Distict v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853 (1982)
  • This case involved a challenge to Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• Monteiro v. The Tempe Union High School District, 158 F.3d 1022 (9th Cir. 1998)
  • This seminal case involved the often challenged The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Counts v. Cedarville School District, 265 F.Supp.2d 996 (W.D. Ark. 2003)
  • Here, the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling was removed and later returned to the shelves

While we traditionally think of schools and public libraries as being on the front lines combatting censorship, another vulnerable population is facing the greatest amount of censorship today.  This population is our incarcerated individuals.  A recent report by PEN America, a non-profit organization founded to defend creative liberties, found that restrictions and bans in prisons across the country affect more than 2.2 million prison inmates.  These bans involve content, such as race, civil rights, and mass incarceration, as well as delivery mechanisms, for instance some prisons no longer accept book donations. In addition, there is very little oversight or transparency in the decision making process.

So, what can we do? Get involved! Fight for freedom! Yes, but most importantly: read.  Exercising your freedom to enjoy and experience books viewed as subversive is in itself a powerful act that even a law student can find the time to effectuate.  These lists include the most challenged books in schools and prisons.  The UW Library system carries the majority of these titles; feel free to stop by the reference desk and we'd be happy to help you locate any title or arrange for an interlibrary loan.  In honor of Banned Books Week, do something seditious: Read!

Submitted by Elizabeth Manriquez, Scholarly Communications and Reference Librarian on November 5, 2019

This article appears in the categories: Law Library