Pico and public libraries

Judge Pitman (W.D. Tex.) ordered Llano County to return twelve books to the public library shelves and enjoined further book removals. The court said Pico applies with greater force to public school libraries, because schools receive uniquely great deference and public libraries are "designed for freewheeling inquiry." The county has appealed.

During law school, I interned at the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom. One of my tasks was drafting letters to library boards about limits on the power to remove stuff from the library because of disagreement with content (back then, we worried about internet filters). The letter was usually enough and we never litigated these cases. We are in new times.