From C.K.-W. v. Wentzville R-IV School Dist., decided Friday by Judge Matthew Schelp (E.D. Mo.); assuming the facts are as described, the decision seems legally correct to me as to K-12 public school libraries (though the analysis would be quite different as to removals of speakers from government property that the government has opened up as a limited public forum for private speech):
Plaintiffs seek to enjoin Defendant, the Wentzville R-IV School District, from following its policy that allows parents, guardians, and students to initiate challenges to library materials, and Plaintiffs also ask the Court to require the District to restore access to any books it has removed from school libraries during the most recent school year…. Plaintiffs have failed to show that the relevant factors weigh in favor of a preliminary injunction in this case ….
Plaintiffs' characterization of this case {referencing the "Banned Books" in this case no fewer than thirty-five times} makes it important at the outset for the Court to clarify something: this case does not involve banning books. The District has not banned the books at issue here, and, despite repeatedly calling this a case on book bans, Plaintiffs make no factual allegations about anyone banning any books. Nowhere do Plaintiffs allege that the District has prohibited anyone from reading, owning, possessing, or discussing any book. Rather, through a policy enacted by its elected school board, the District allows librarians to use their best judgment to remove books in select scenarios, and, through another policy, the District temporarily has removed a limited number of other books while it determines their propriety for inclusion in the District's libraries.
The District's policy does not ban the District's students from reading the books at issue here. Nor does it ban students from acquiring the books or lending the books to others. Students may borrow the books from the public library or from a friend or neighbor. They likewise are free to purchase the books. The policy does not even ban students from bringing the books at issue to the District's schools. Nor does it ban students from discussing the books at school during their free time or encouraging others to read them…. [T]he "overwrought rhetoric about book banning has no place" in this case. Cf. Bd. of Educ. v. Pico (1982) (principal case on which Plaintiffs rely that, despite similar facts, does not use the word ban or any similar language to describe the board's actions). A school district does not "ban" a book when, "through its authorized school board," it "decides not to continue possessing [a] book on its own library shelves."
