Soon, the year of 2024 is coming to a close. It’s been, to put it mildly, a horrific year for human rights, and our right to free speech is no exception. But where there has been repression, there has been resistance.
In a joyful example for this holiday season, in New Jersey, where there have been multiple attempted book bans, there is now a ban on book bans. According to the American Library Association, most of these attempted book bans centered on race and LGBTQ themes. On December 9, 2024, Democratic Governor Phil Murphy signed the Freedom to Read Act into law.
Sounds great, right? It is. The law prohibits book banning in state libraries and schools. Specifically, Lexi Lonas Cochran explains, under the law, books cannot be removed based on “the origin, background, or views of the material or of its authors,” nor “a disagreement with a viewpoint, idea, or concept, or solely because an individual finds certain content offensive.” (There’s an exception for restricting access to developmentally inappropriate material for certain age groups.)
We at the Woodhull Freedom Foundation are thrilled to know that with this law, New Jersey is now keeping Minnesota and Illinois in the honorable ranks of states that have laws against book banning. We firmly believe in the sanctity of the First Amendment, and we want everyone – in every state – to have that constitutional right affirmatively protected.
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