Preliminary injunction orders Mat-Su School District to return removed books to school libraries

With the start of the school year right around the corner, a U.S. District Court judge on August 7, 2024 that Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District (MSBSD) return all but 7 of the 56 books previously removed in April 2023 to its shelves by August 14, 2024, a day before the start of school.

On Tuesday, Judge Sharon Gleason of the U.S. District Court of Alaska ordered the return of most of the books that had been challenged and had under review by the Library Citizens’ Advisory Committee (LCAC).

The Court found that the “review process to date raises the specter of official suppression of ideas” and shows serious questions about the “constitutionality of the District’s wholesale, ad hoc, and indefinite removal of the books.”

The only books allowed to remain off of the shelves are the 7 that were voted by the Library Committee and the School Board to be entirely removed from circulation. All other books must be re-shelved by August 14, 2024, absent a written reason specified by the Administrator or the School Board for the book’s continued removal that is consistent with the Court’s ruling on constitutionality.

“This is an enormous win for the students and their families,” said Savannah Fletcher, Attorney for the plaintiffs. “Never before has there been a case of such brazen removal of books without any review, based on reasons that are so clearly unconstitutional. The Court has found the District’s behavior is so likely to be unconstitutional that the books must be returned immediately so that students can again have free access to ideas that the District has improperly suppressed. Today’s order is a powerful reminder of the protections our Constitution provides.”

Back in November 2023, the Northern Justice Project, LLC, (NJP) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Alaska filed a lawsuit against the MSBSD for the removal of the 56 books. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of eight plaintiffs because they said that the book removal violated their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights under the United States Constitution to free speech, press, and political expression.

In January of this year, the NJP and the ACLU of Alaska filed a motion for a preliminary injunction that, if granted, would return the 56 book titles to the shelves in school district libraries where they were previously removed and pause the removal of any other books pending a further order from the court. Arguments were then heard in April before Judge Gleason.

“We are asking that the books be returned to the libraries while the review process continues,” argued attorney for the plaintiff Savannah Fletcher, who argued that removing the books from school libraries and preventing students from accessing them could do irreparable harm to their learning.

John Ptacin, attorney for the MSBSD said that the plaintiff is asking the courts to decide on something no other court has decided, that the court could be taking away the rights of the local school board and community citizens to determine what is appropriate to be housed in school libraries.

“Does the law really say experts are necessary to decide the fate of a book? Is it the role of school boards and the local people to decide for themselves whether a book is culturally accurate, or whether it is obscene?” Ptacin also argued that the court was being asked to shut down the review process, something that has never been done.

“There is no precedent to stop a review in its tracks.”

The LCAC, which concluded for the school year, had recommended 19 of the books they had reviewed to be removed from all MSBSD libraries, while the district removed 7 of those books and remanded the rest to district administration for a final decision regarding its obscenity status and potential for restriction or removal.

The school district and counsel were still in the process of reviewing the ruling and had no comment available as of this publication.