II. Legal Information Sources
III. Interdisciplinary Information Sources
Ever since written records have existed, some people have tried to keep other people from reading them. In ancient Assyria, censorship was based on the king's whims. In the Roman empire, censors were responsible for "protecting traditional values." During the Reformation, the Catholic Church tried to prevent people from reading Protestant works and vice versa.
In the United States, the founding fathers sought to prevent censorship by including the First Amendment in the Constitution. In 1927, in the "Scopes Monkey Trial," freedom was a victim of the times. The censors won a major battle when the Supreme Court of Tennessee declared it constitutional to prohibit the teaching of evolution "by reason of popular prejudice." Since then there have been many battles in the courts between those who want to prevent the exposure of children to ideas they disagree with and those who feel the children have a right to be exposed to a wide variety of ideas and make up their own minds about the value of each one. A few of these cases and their ramifications are discussed in the works listed below.
In a 1971 case about public subsidies to private school teachers' salaries (Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602), the Supreme Court established a three-part test that has been followed since: 1) a statute must have a secular legislative purpose, 2) its principal or primary effect must be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion, and 3) the statute must not foster "an excessive government entanglement with religion."
Librarians and library students need to be aware of the legal history of censorship in the United States because we, especially those of us in school and public libraries, are likely to be asked either not to select materials or to remove materials considered offensive by some. Professional associations can provide assistance in these situations, but there is no substitute for personal knowledge of this subject.
i. 1st Amendment-"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or "prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
ii. 14th Amendment, Section 1-"... No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law."
(In effect, the 14th Amendment says States cannot take away rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
i. Article I, Section 6-All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences. No man shall be compelled to attend, erect or support any place of worship, or to maintain any ministry against his consent. No human authority ought, in any case whatever, to control or interfere with the rights of conscience in matters of religion, an no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious society or mode of worship. But it shall be the duty of the Legislature to pass such laws as nay be necessary to protect equally every religious denomination in the peaceable enjoyment of its own mode of public worship.
i. Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1968). The 1927 state law prohibiting the teaching of evolution was declared unconstitutional.
ii. Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School Dist. No. 26 v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853 (1982). The removal of books from the school library for moral reasons was declared unconstitutional.
iii. Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578, 107 S.Ct. 2573 (1987). The Louisiana Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science Act was declared unconstitutional.
iv. Daniel v. Waters, 515 F. 2d 485 (6th Cir. 1975). The 1974 Arkansas law effectively prohibiting the teaching of evolution was declared unconstitutional.
v. Mozert v. Hawkins County Bd. of Education, 827 F. 2d 1058 (6th Cir. 1987), cert. denied 484 U.S 1066 (1988). Parents were denied an injunction prohibiting the use of textbooks they found morally offensive because the textbooks did not promote one religious belief over another.
vi. Grove v. Mead School District No. 354, 753 F. 2d 1528 (9th Cir. 1985), cert. denied 474 U.S. 826 (1985). The court found that school use of The Learning Tree did not violate a student's 1st Amendment right to freedom of religion.
vii. Virgil v. School Board of Columbia County, 862 F. 2d 1517 (11th Cir. 1989). The court found that removal of Aristophanes' Lysistrata and Chaucer's The Miller's Tale was based on legitimate pedagogical concerns and did not violate the 1st Amendment.
viii. Wright v. Houston Indep. School District, 366 F. Supp. 1208 (S.D. Tex. 1972), affirmed 486 F. 2d 137 (5th Cir 1973), cert. denied 417 U.S. 969 (1974).
ix. McLean v. Arkansas Bd. of Education, 529 F. Supp. 1255 (E.D. Ark. 1982). The Arkansas Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science Act was declared unconstitutional.
x. Williams v. Bd. of Education of the County of Kanawha, 388 F. Supp. 93 (S.D. W.Va. 1975), affirmed 530 F. 2d 972 (4th Cir. 1975). ). Parents were denied an injunction prohibiting the use of textbooks and materials they found morally offensive because the textbooks did not promote one religious belief over another.
i. West-Constitutional Law 84(1), 84.5(1), 84.5(3)
ii. West-Schools 167 Textbooks
iii. L.Ed.-Constitutional Law §§963-965
iv. L.Ed.-Schools §§10, 12
v. ALR Digests-Constitutional Law §798
vi. ALR Digests-Schools §67
i. West's Texas Digest 2d-Constitutional Law 84.5(1), 84.5(3)
ii. West's Texas Digest 2d- Schools 167 Textbooks
i. 16A Constitutional Law §481 Supplement
ii. 68 Schools §283, 288.5
i. 16A CJS §520 Curriculum
ii. 78A CJS §786 Textbooks and Other Instructional Materials
i. 12 Constitutional Law §145
ii. Schools §365
a. 102 ALR Fed. 537 Constitutionality of Teaching or Suppressing Teaching of Biblical Creationism or Darwinian Evolution Theory n Public Schools by Gregory G Sarno and Alan Stephens.
b. 103 ALR Fed. 538 Constitutionality of Teaching or Otherwise Promoting Secular Humanism in Public Schools by Gregory G Sarno and Alan Stephens
i. At a Glance - Education, "Hot Books," The National Journal 25, no. 36 (September 4, 1993): 2148
ii. Neil R. Pierce, "California Leading Fight for Better Textbooks," The National Journal 17, no. 43 (October 26, 1985): 2441.
iii. Rochelle L. Stanfield, "Battling Over Books," The National Journal 28, no. 41 (October 12, 1996): 2197
i. M. David Bieber, "Textbook Adoption Law, Precensorship, and the First Amendment: The Case Against Statewide Selection of Classroom Materials," John Marshall Law Review 17, no. 1 (Winter 1984): 167-194.
ii. David A. Diamond, "The First Amendment and Public Schools: The Case Against Judicial Intervention," Texas Law Review 59, no. 3 (March 1981): 477-528.
iii. Maranda E. Fritz. "What Will We Tell the Children? A Discussion of Current Judicial Opinion on the Scope of Ideas Acceptable for Presentation in Primary and Secondary Education," Tulane Law Review 56, No. 3 (April 1982): 960-1005.
iv. Leora Harpaz, "A Paradigm of First Amendment Dilemmas: Resolving Public School Library Censorship Disputes," Western New England Law Review 4, no. 1 (Summer 1981): 1-103.
v. Jeff Kesseloff, "Free Speech Under Seige," Bill of Rights Journal 14 (Dec. 1981): 4(2).
vi. Judith F. Krug, "Locked Books, Locked Minds: The Results of School Censorship," Update On Law-Related Education 5, no. 1 (Winter 1981): 28-33.
vii. James C. Lemay, "A Definitional Approach to Secondary School Students Right to Know," Ohio State Law Journal 42, no. 4 (Winter 1981): 1025-1037.
viii. Augusta Maria Salem, "Removal of Public School Library Books: The First Amendment versus the Local School Board," Vanderbilt Law Review 34, no. 5 (Oct. 1981): 1407-1434.
ix. Charles Salles, "A Textbook Case," Bill of Rights Journal 14 (Dec. 1981): 7(4).
x. Sharon Brook Shively, "Book Banning in Public Schools: Don't Tinker with Tinker," Arizona State Law Journal, no. 4 (Fall 1982): 939-964.
xi. Kurt Vonnegut, "A letter to Drake," Bill of Rights Journal 14 (Dec. 1981): 15(2).
xii. "Bad Law, Bad Schools," The Los Angeles Daily Journal 101, no. 45 (March 3, 1988): 4.
xiii. "Book Banning in the Public Schools," Children's Legal Rights Journal 3, no. 3 (Nov.-Dec. 1981): 17-19.
xiv. "The Censors in the Rye," The Los Angeles Daily Journal 102, no. 186 (Sept. 18, 1989): 6.
2. Jonathon Green, The Encyclopedia of Censorship (New York: Facts on File, 1990). Z 657 .G73
3. Frank W. Hoffman, Intellectual Freedom and Censorship: An Annotated Bibliography (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1989). Z 658 .U5 H64
1. American Library Association, Intellectual Freedom Manual, 5th ed. (Chicago: American Library Association, 1996). Z 711.4 .I57
2. A.J. Anderson, Problems in Intellectual Freedom and Censorship, Problem-Centered Approaches to Librarianship series (New York: R.R. Bowker, 1974). (case studies) Z 711.4 .A63
3. Stephen Arons, Compelling Belief: The Culture of American Schooling, 1st paperback ed. (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1986). LC 72.2 .A76
4. Stephen Bates, Battleground: One Mother’s Crusade, the Religious Right, and the Struggle for Control of Our Classrooms (New York: Poseidon Press, 1993). (Hawkins County) KFT 392.7 .B38
5. Arlene Bielefield and Lawrence Cheeseman, Library Patrons and the Law, Librarians & the Law series (New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 1995). KF 4315 .B54
6. Haig Bosmajian, ed., The Freedom to Read, The 1st Amendment in the Classroom series, (New York: Neal-Schuman, 1987). (This book is entirely devoted to discussing court cases relating to schools and censorship.) KF 4118 .F74
7. Haig Bosmajian, Censorship, Libraries, and the Law (New York: Neal-Schuman, 1983). (This book is entirely devoted to discussing court cases relating to schools and censorship.) KF 4219 .A52 B67
8. Joseph E. Bryson and Elizabeth W. Detty, The Legal Aspects of Censorship of Public School Library and Instructional Materials (Charlottesville, Va.: Michie Co., 1982). KF 4219 .B79
9. Lee Burress, Battle of the Books: Literary Censorship in the Public Schools 1950-1985 (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1989). Z 658 .U5 B87
10. Joan DelFattore, What Johnny Shouldn’t Read: Textbook Censorship in America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992). LB 3045.7 .D45
11. Herbert N. Foerstel, Banned in the USA: a Reference Guide to Book Censorship in Schools and Public Libraries (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994). Z 658 .U5 F64
12. Edward B. Jenkinson, Censors in the Classroom: The Mind Benders (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1979). LB 3047 .J46
13. James Moffett, Storm in the Mountains: A Case Study of Censorship, Conflict, and Consciousness (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1988). LB 3045.7 .M64
14. Robert M. O’Neill, Classrooms in the Crossfire: The Rights and Interests of Students, Parents, Teachers, Administrators, Librarians, and the Community (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981). (Bibliographic notes contain many references to cases, law review articles, newspapers, and books, mostly from the 1960s and 1970s.) KF 4119 .O53
15. Eli M. Oboler, ed., Censorship and Education, Reference Shelf series (New York: H.W. Wilson, 1981). LC 87 .C45
16. Lisa Orr, ed., Censorship: Opposing Viewpoints, Opposing Viewpoints series (San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1990). (juvenile lit.) (organizations) Z 657 .C42
17. Henry Reichman, Censorship and Selection: Issues and Answers for Schools, rev. ed., (Chicago: American Library Association, 1993). Z 675 .S3 R42
18. John S. Simmons, ed., Censorship: A Threat to Reading, Learning and Thinking (Newark, Del.: International Reading Association, 1994). LC 72.2 .C46
19. James Anthony Whitson, Constitution and Curriculum: Hermeneutical Semiotics of Cases and Controversies in Education, Law, and Social Science (New York: Falmer Press, 1991). (Includes several references to the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee Newsletter.) KF 4201 .W48
C. Articles
- A search of the Library Literature database using "censorship AND school NOT Internet" brought up 266 records. Judging by a cursory review of the records, all of the articles were relevant. Below are four that mentioned Texas.1. Jean M. Auel, "An Open Letter to Censors," Texas Library Journal 63 (Winter 1987): 139-141.
2. Barbara Froling Imroth, "Intellectual Freedom as Practiced by Public and School Libraries in Texas," Collection Management 7 (Fall 1985-Winter 1986): 353-368.
3. "Publisher Pulls Textbook from Texas," Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom 43 (July 1994): 103.
4. "Report Claims Texas a Leader in School Censorship," Texas Libraries 55 (Fall/Winter 1994-95): 86.
1. Yahoo: http://www.Yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Books/Banned_Books/
2. ALA: http://www.ala.org/bbooks/
3. ACLU Banned Books Index: http://www.aclu.org/issues/freespeech/bbwind.html
4. ACLU Banned Books Links: http://www.aclu.org/issues/freespeech/bbwlinks.html
5. People for the American Way: http://www.pfaw.org/attacks/HTTOC.HTM
6. U. of Ill. at Chic.: http://fileroom.aaup.uic.edu/FileRoom/documents/TofCont.html
7. Carnegie Mellon Univ.: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Web/People/spok/banned-books.html
8. Western Montana College: http://www.lib.wmc.edu/instruct/censors.html
9. Book Stacks: http://www.bannedbooks.com
1. Library Literature
Back to Legal Research Pathfinders Page