(05-31-2023 03:35 PM)umbluegray Wrote: (05-31-2023 03:18 PM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote: (05-31-2023 02:41 PM)umbluegray Wrote: Groomers all.
American Library Association and Association of American Publishers Join Lawsuit Over Arkansas Ban on Libraries Providing Obscene Books to Minors
Quote:A federal lawsuit has been filed to fight for the right for libraries to provide sexually explicit books to Arkansas children.
The American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, the American Booksellers Association, and the Authors Guild are among 17 plaintiffs suing over a ban on libraries offering children obscene books in the state.
Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed the ban into law on March 31, and it will go into effect on August 1 — just before the start of the new school year.
The bill, Senate Bill 81, adds library materials to the statute governing the possession and distribution of obscene material.
Previously, schools and public libraries were exempt from prosecution “for disseminating a writing, film, slide, drawing, or other visual reproduction that is claimed to be obscene.”
Under the new law, parents and other members of the community can challenge the appropriateness of a book that is being offered to minors in schools or public libraries. Additionally, employees of public or school libraries that knowingly provide obscene material to a minor can face a Class D felony.
The report lists the current plaintiffs as:
- Central Arkansas Library System
- Fayetteville Public Library
- The Eureka Springs Carnegie Public Library
- Garland County Library executive director Adam Webb
- CALS executive director Nate Coulter
- Arkansas Library Association
- Advocates for All Arkansas Libraries
- The Authors Guild
- The American Booksellers’ Association
- The Association of American Publishers
- The Freedom to Read Foundation
- The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
- WordsWorth Books (an independent bookstore in Little Rock)
- Pearl’s Books (an independent bookstore in Fayetteville)
- Hayden Kirby (a 17-year-old CALS patron and a student at Little Rock Central High
- School
- Jennie Kirby (Hayden’s mother)
- Olivia Farrell (an adult CALS patron)
So is the law clear on what classifies as "obscene"?
https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPD...ACT372.pdf
So doing control F and searching obscene I see it is in the bill 11 times with no definition of what counts as obscene. 6 of those 11 times are on page 1 of the bill. Other 5 mentions
© No employee, director, or trustee of a bona fide school, museum,
14 or public library, acting within the scope of his or her regular employment,
15 is liable to prosecution for a violation of this subchapter for disseminating
16 a writing, film, slide, drawing, or other visual reproduction that is
claimed
17 to be obscene.
A person that
22 knowingly sends or causes to be sent or brings or causes to be brought into
23 this state for sale or commercial distribution, or in this state prepares,
24 publishes, sells, exhibits, loans at a library, or commercially distributes,
25 or gives away or offers to give away or has in the person's possession with
26 intent the purpose to sell or commercially distribute or to exhibit or to
27 give away, any
obscene printed or written matter or material other than
28 mailable matter, or any mailable matter known by the person to have been
29
judicially found to be obscene under this subchapter, or that knowingly
30 informs another of when, where, how, or from whom or by what means any of
31 these things can be purchased or obtained, upon conviction is guilty of a
32 Class D felony.
A person that
34 knowingly has in the person's possession any
obscene printed or written
35 matter or material other than mailable matter, or any mailable matter known
36 by that person to have been
judicially found to be obscene under this
1 subchapter, upon conviction is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.
So ummmm my question still stands what's the definition of obscene here? I think it's obscene to see a video of a great big fat person eating a large meal, does that count as criminal obscenity?