LLANO COUNTY, Texas — Llano County, a rural Texas county located northwest of Austin, with a population of just over 1,200, could close its library system after a federal judge ordered it to return banned books to public library shelves.

What You Need To Know

  • Llano County, Texas, could close its library system after a federal judge ordered it to return banned books to public library shelves

  • Judge Robert Pitman on March 30 ordered the library system to return 12 children’s books to shelves. Those books had been moved due to racial and LGBTQ content

  • Seven Llano County residents, claiming their First and 14 Amendment rights were violated, sued

  • Among the April 13 agenda items for a meeting of the Commissioners Court of Llano County is whether to “continue or cease operations of the current physical Llano County Library System"

Among the April 13 agenda items for a meeting of the Commissioners Court of Llano County is whether to “continue or cease operations of the current physical Llano County Library System pending further guidance from Federal Courts.”

That meeting is scheduled to start at 3 p.m.

According to a report from CNN, Judge Robert Pitman on March 30 ordered the library system to return 12 children’s books to shelves. Those books had been removed because of racial and LGBTQ content. The library system includes three branches.

Removed titles included “Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen” by Jazz Jennings and “They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.

Seven Llano County residents, claiming their First and 14 Amendment rights were violated, sued. Judge Pitman gave the library system 24 hours to return the books.

Llano County commissioners and members of the Library Board appealed the ruling.

This isn't limited to Llano County or public libraries. PEN America, a nonprofit, reports that during the 2021-2022 school year, 801 books were removed from 22 school districts across Texas.

Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, has been a part of the movement for more than a year. He was first made aware of “sexually explicit books in schools” when former Republican Rep. Matt Krause sent a letter about it. Shortly after, Rep. Patterson submitted a list of several books that he thought Frisco ISD should remove from its collection. 

Patterson filed HB 1655, also called The READER Act. He described it as a statewide standard to make sure explicit materials have no home in the school library. If it passes, it would also require book vendors to rate sexual materials and provide legal protections for well-meaning schools and staff. 

Meanwhile, a powerful Missouri state lawmaker on Tuesday moved to strip state funding for public libraries over a fight about books.

Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith’s budget proposal, unveiled Tuesday, would cut all $4.5 million in state funding that libraries were slated to get next fiscal year.

Spectrum News’ Charlotte Scott and the Associated Press contributed to this report.