AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that a Texas law, which would have required book publishers and sellers to provide content ratings for books, is an unconstitutional breech of the First Amendment protection against compelled speech.
House Bill 900, titled “Restricting Explicit and Adult-Designated Educational Resources Act” (READER), was passed by the Texas Legislature in 2023.
The judges took issue with the “vendor-rating system” required by HB 900. This system would require publishers and book sellers to provide content ratings of “sexually explicit,” “sexually relevant” or “no rating” for every book ever sold to a Texas library.
“According to the State…the library-material ratings are ‘purely factual and uncontroversial’ like a nutrition label; they simply tell the buyer what they are receiving rather than pass judgment or express a view on the material’s appropriateness for children. We disagree,” the court’s ruling read. “The ratings READER requires are neither factual nor uncontroversial.”
In order for the government to force speech from individuals or business, they must demonstrate a sufficient public interest; the judges found Texas’ justification lacking.
“We agree with the State that it has an interest in protecting children from harmful library materials,” the ruling read.
“But ‘neither [the State] nor the public has any interest in enforcing a regulation that violates federal law,'” the ruling read, citing related cases. “Indeed, ‘[i]njunctions protecting First Amendment freedoms are always in the public interest.’ Because Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their First Amendment claim, the State and the public won’t be injured by an injunction of a statute that likely violates the First Amendment.”
The lawsuit was initially brought by Austin book seller BookPeople, Houston book seller Blue Willow Bookshop, the Association of American Publishers, the Authors Guild, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the American Booksellers Association.
KXAN reached out to the case’s defendants for comment: Texas State Library and Archives Commission Chair Martha Wong, Texas State Board of Education Chair Kevin Ellis and Texas Education Agency Mike Morath. This story will be updated if responses are received.
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