Arkansas’ ‘Harmful to Minors’ Library Law Permanently Blocked

An Arkansas law that makes it a crime for librarians and booksellers to make books deemed “harmful to minors” available to them was permanently enjoined by a federal court.

If the purpose behind the criminal provision “was to protect younger minors from accessing inappropriate sexual content in libraries and bookstores, the law will only achieve that end at the expense of everyone else’s First Amendment rights,” Judge Timothy L. Brooks said Monday for the US District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.

The provision makes it a misdemeanor and subjects librarians and booksellers to up to one year in ...