Georgia Legislators The Latest To Criminalize Being A Librarian
from the anything-that-makes-censorship-easier dept
The hate and stupidity continues. Emboldened by Trump’s first presidential term and his subsequent, extremely destructive return to the Oval Office, legislators with an unacknowledged preference for fascism are pushing further and further, comfortable in the uncomfortable fact that the only thing capable of stopping them is their own shame.
And since they don’t have any of that, all bets are off. State legislators in Georgia are doing what others have done elsewhere: strip protections from the people staffing public libraries in the apparent hope of jailing or fining a few of them for allowing minors to access content these legislators don’t like. Here’s Miguel Legoas, reporting for the Savannah Morning News (and reprinted by USA Today):
On Tuesday, the Senate Education and Youth Committee approved Senate Bill 74 and moves on to the Senate Rules Committee, the last step before it can make it to the Senate’s vote.
[…]
Georgia Code § 16-12-103 makes it illegal to sell or distribute ‘harmful materials’ to minors. There is an exception for public libraries as well as any library that’s part of a school, college, or university. SB 74 removes this exception.
The original law is pretty basic. It makes it illegal for people or businesses to sell or otherwise provide access to sexually explicit content. It’s the sort of thing that makes porn publications only accessible to adults and prevents public displays of sexually explicit content anywhere minors might have access to.
What this bill does is strip protections from librarians staffing public libraries, something that clearly has never been a problem before, and clearly isn’t even a problem now. It’s all very performative and is likely the leading edge of similar bills that will seek to redefine LGBTQ+ content as inherently “sexually explicit.”
The bill might be performative but the consequences are real. Any violation of this law will be treated as a “high and aggravated misdemeanor,” which are violations that generate fines of up to $5,000 per violation, as well as the possibility of being sentenced to up to a year in jail. Even if librarians don’t end up getting tossed in jail, they’re likely to be fined and saddled with a criminal record for simply doing their jobs.
If there’s any upside here, it’s that the legislation provides an affirmative defense for accused public servants, providing they can demonstrate they made a good faith effort to ensure minors were provided access to sexually explicit materials.
It’s a law that does nothing but provide a way for opportunistic prosecutors to punish librarians for being on the clock while allowing minors to check out books to read. Very little of what is carried by most public libraries would fit the description of the content described in the underlying law. But with a little bit of imagination — or an expansion of the definition of “explicit” material to cover non-pornography — the state government will have more censorship options, including the chilling effect that might encourage librarians to lock up, remove, etc. content that they think legislators will object to in the future.
Filed Under: 1st amendment, book ban, censorship, free speech, georgia, libraries
Comments on “Georgia Legislators The Latest To Criminalize Being A Librarian”
Wait so if the libraries try their best to give children real actual sexually explicit material, that can be used as an affirmative defense against allegations of… having given sexually explicit material to children?
Is the law really that stupidly written, or (more likely) is there a mistake in there?
Re:
“Yes, your honor, I did provide that Playboy magazine to the undercover cop who was pretending to be a teenager.”
Typo?
“If there’s any upside here, it’s that the legislation provides an affirmative defense for accused public servants, providing they can demonstrate they made a good faith effort to ensure minors were provided access to sexually explicit materials.”
Pretty sure there should be a “not” after the phrase” good faith effort to ensure minors”
Correction?
I think this, “…demonstrate they made a good faith effort to ensure minors were provided access to sexually explicit materials.” either should have been weren’t or had a not after the were.
Or perhaps librarians are now the purveyors of sexually explicit material for minors, and we have to make sure all minors are provided with the material (it’s in the bill, amiright)?
Funny how that one always gets an exception...
The day that those pushing and/or supporting bills like this answer the question ‘Is the bible now classified as a prohibited book due to it’s violent and sexual content?’ with a ‘Yes’ is the day I’ll be inclined to believe that they aren’t just exploiting kids to push their bigotry onto others via these book-banning laws.
Typo?
Pretty sure there should be a ‘not’ after the phrase “…good faith effort to ensure minors were…”