On Tuesday, August 6th, Judge Gleason of the U.S. District Court of Alaska ordered that the Mat-Su Borough School District return all but 7 of the 56 books it removed in April 2023 to its shelves by August 14, 2024, a day before the start of school.
The Court found that the “review process to date raises the specter of official suppression of ideas” and shows serious questions about the “constitutionality of the District’s wholesale, ad hoc, and indefinite removal of the books.”
The only books allowed to remain off of the shelves are the 7 that were voted by the Library Committee and the School Board1 to be entirely removed from circulation. All other books must be reshelved by August 14, 2024, absent a written reason specified by the Administrator or the School Board for the book’s continued removal that is consistent with the Court’s ruling on constitutionality.
“This is an enormous win for the students and their families,” said Savannah Fletcher, Attorney for the plaintiffs. “Never before has there been a case of such brazen removal of books without any review, based on reasons that are so clearly unconstitutional. The Court has found the District’s behavior is so likely to be unconstitutional that the books must be returned immediately so that students can again have free access to ideas that the District has improperly suppressed. Today’s order is a powerful reminder of the protections our Constitution provides.”
Plaintiffs are represented by the Northern Justice Project, LLC, (NJP) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Alaska.
"The court's decision today affirms free speech and First Amendment rights that all Alaskans are afforded under the law,” said Ruth Botstein, Legal Director for the ACLU of Alaska. “Alaska students do not benefit when ideas are censored. This is a win for young people in our state.”
1. Those books are: Call Me By Your Name, Verity, It Ends With Us, Ugly Love, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Silver Flames, and You.
