An Idaho House Committee has rejected an effort to make libraries civilly liable for lending “obscene” materials to minors. Lawmakers also punted on a separate bill backed by a library industry group Wednesday.
Libraries could’ve been sued for $10,000 for each piece of “harmful” material lent to a child. Families would’ve had up to four years to file a lawsuit, and children themselves could’ve sued for additional damages.
“We are simply asking libraries to take a reasonable step to restrict this material from minors,” said one of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Jaron Crane (R-Nampa).
Any material, whether it’s a book, movie or magazine, that depicts “sexual conduct” defined by the prevailing standards of the community, would’ve been limited to adult patrons only.
The bill defined sexual conduct as “any act of masturbation, homosexuality, sexual intercourse, or physical contact with a person's clothed or unclothed genitals, pubic area, buttocks, or, if such person is female, the breast.”
That would’ve included any depiction of a kiss between two men or two women if the majority of the community viewed that act as obscene.
Two packets of examples were passed around among committee members, which included excerpts from books and illustrated novels depicting LGBTQ characters and sex education materials.
Several librarians testified against the measure, arguing it would effectively be a ban on certain books that some people don’t agree with.
“Each student at my school should be able to find themselves within the books that we have in our library, each student, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, body size and shape, history, gender identity, religion or personal taste,” said Gregory Taylor, a librarian at Hillside Junior High in Boise.
Taylor, the Idaho Library Association’s Librarian of the Year in 2021, said it’s up to parents to monitor the books their children read and decide whether they’re appropriate.
Nina Beasley drove from Rathdrum to testify in support of the bill. Beasley said she’s been fighting to remove materials she refers to as pornography from her local library networks for the last couple of years.
“The state has institutionalized harm to kids. That needs to change now,” she said.
“I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone,” said Rep. Dale Hawkins (R-Fernwood). The examples brought forward Wednesday morning, Hawkins said, would’ve been immediately declared obscene under the law protecting librarians when it was written in the 1970s.
Rep. Dan Garner (R-Clifton) made the motion to essentially kill the bill. Garner said he’s concerned it would infringe on an individual’s free speech rights.
During his time on his local school board, he said some parents were concerned about high school seniors studying George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984,” which explores the consequences of totalitarianism and strict control over people’s lives.
The board eventually allowed there to be an alternative book students could study, a solution Garner said should remain in local hands.
The materials that were passed around, he said, were “not any different than the Bible or ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’” and that the legislature can’t establish a cutoff date to determine whether a book has literary value or not.
After killing the bill by one vote, the House Education Committee considered a different alternative that would’ve required libraries to develop policies around where sensitive books can be placed and which age groups they’d be catered to. Parents could also tell librarians which books their children would be allowed to check out, under the proposal.
Opponents felt it didn’t go far enough, with no repercussions for libraries that don’t develop such policies.
Nina Beasley, who testified on the previous bill, began yelling at the committee.
“You all are supposed to be lawmakers. Why don’t you pray to Jesus Christ, who is the law giver?” Beasley said.
“We already have policies. We already have all of these things and guess what? It hasn’t removed books,” she said.
A state trooper in the room eventually approached her and escorted her back to her seat.
Committee members eventually adjourned the hearing without acting on the bill.
Chairperson Julie Yamamoto said she would consider holding another hearing on the legislation if Nelson requested it.
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