Texas Sex-Content Rating Law for Books Ruled Unconstitutional

A Texas law requiring booksellers to assign sex-content ratings to books sold to public schools was struck down as unconstitutional by a federal court Wednesday.

Judge Alan D. Albright ruled that while “children should certainly be protected from obscene content in the school setting,” Texas’ 2023 law known as the READER Act fails to accomplish that goal and violates the First Amendment.

The law is also unconstitutionally vague, requiring booksellers “to assign subjective, confusing, and unworkable Rating Requirements,” Albright said.

The rating system unconstitutionally compels speech the book publishers don’t want to engage, he said.

Texas has the power to create its own ratings on books and can restrict what books its schools will purchase, Albright said. “But those powers should be exercised by the state directly—not by compelling third parties to perform it or risk losing any opportunity to engage in commerce with school districts.”

The judge, who sits on the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, entered a permanent injunction in favor of the plaintiffs challenging the law, which include book publishers and author groups.

Under the injunction Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath is prohibited from enforcing READER.

The Texas Education Agency didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

The ruling comes after the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld Albright’s preliminary injunction against the law. The appeals court declined to revisit that ruling before the full panel of judges.

The plaintiffs, which include the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild, sued in 2023, alleging the law compels them to rate books based on vague standards and punishes them for refusing to rate books.

The law would have the Texas Education Agency oversee a rating system that categorizes books with “sexually explicit” and “sexually relevant” content. Booksellers would need to categorize titles based on those standards and recall any “sexually explicit” material they sold to schools. Booksellers who don’t comply with the rating system couldn’t sell to schools.

Albright’s Wednesday ruling rejected Texas’ arguments that the publishers lacked standing, that the compelled ratings are only commercial speech, or that the education commissioner was protected by sovereign immunity.

Haynes and Boone LLP represents the publishers. The Texas attorney general’s office represents the education commissioner.

The case is Book People Inc. v. Wong, W.D. Tex., No. 1:23-cv-00858, 10/22/25.