Arkansas Judge declares Act 372 unconstitutional, striking down key provisions of the "harmful to minors" law.

Act 372 targeted librarians and booksellers, threatening jail for shelving "inappropriate" books.

Critics argued the act targeted LGBTQ+ content; Gender Queer became central in the debate.

ACLU hails the ruling as a victory for free speech; AG Tim Griffin plans to appeal the decision.

A federal judge in Arkansas has struck down two provisions of Arkansas' "harmful to minors" law, known as Act 372, and signed by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders on the 30th of March, 2023, as unconstitutional. Writing in a 23rd of December summary judgment, Judge Timothy Brooks wrote that if the Arkansas legislature's goal was "to protect younger minors from accessing inappropriate sexual content in libraries and bookstores," and that it would "only achieve that end at the expense of everyone else's First Amendment rights… The law deputizes librarians and booksellers as the agents of censorship; when motivated by the fear of jail time, it is likely they will shelve only books fit for young children and segregate or discard the rest."

Section one would have imposed a misdemeanour penalty of up to one year in jail for librarians and booksellers who have books deemed inappropriate on the shelves. Section five would have mandated "a new procedure for libraries, city councils, and county quorum courts to follow when evaluating a citizen's request to move or remove a book from a public library's permanent collection".

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/arkansas-judge-strikes-down-act-372-keeps-gender-queer-on-shelves/