U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason ruled in favor of most of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska and Northern Justice Project’s lawsuit against the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District over the removal of challenged books from school libraries.
In Gleason’s 23-page ruling, she ordered that all but seven books — deemed to violate state statute on obscenity by an 11-member Library Citizens Advisory Committee — must be returned to school library shelves before school starts on Aug. 15.
Savannah Fletcher is a lawyer with the Northern Justice Project, and represented the eight plaintiffs who sued the district including six students.
“What this injunction is about is the process, and she made very clear that any kind of process where you’re removing books before you’ve actually reviewed them, that is definitely worrisome and likely unconstitutional,” Fletcher said.
The district removed 56 library books from shelves in April of 2023 in response to citizen complaints. After the removal, a new Library Citizens Advisory Committee began reviewing books last August, and finished their review of all but two of the available books this June. The committee recommended seven be removed from circulation altogether, and a spokesperson for the district said last month that 28 books had been returned to shelves.
The plaintiffs sued last November, and asked the court in January to return the books to shelves until the committee had finished their review. Gleason granted that motion on Tuesday, stating that the district must return the remaining books to shelves.
The case will still go to trial in April to determine if Judge Gleason’s order will be permanent. That would bar any district from removing books from school libraries without following a neutral process, and a defined time period when books would be reviewed by the district. Fletcher said the plaintiffs feel confident after Gleason’s order.
“That is still seeking a permanent finding that once we have all the facts before Judge Gleason that she will reaffirm this is in fact unconstitutional,” Fletcher said. “So that declaratory relief, just making it clear moving forward, and that would then allow a permanent injunction that says you cannot continue such unconstitutional behavior, so that’s the key thing we’re seeking at trial.”
The Mat-Su School District did not provide comment about the ruling for this story.
The seven books that will stay off Mat-Su library shelves are “You” by Caroline Kepnes, “Call Me By Your Name” by Andre Aciman, “Verity,” “Ugly Love” and “It Ends with Us” by Colleen Hoover and “A Court of Mist and Fury” and “A Court of Silver Flames” by Sarah Maas.
Tim Rockey is the producer of Alaska News Nightly and covers education for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at trockey@alaskapublic.org or 907-550-8487. Read more about Tim here.
