Intellectual Freedom News 10/10/2025
Highlights
- Banned Books Week spotlights attempts to restrict books in libraries and schools | USA Today
- The Most Banned Books of the 21st Century | Oprah Daily
- Walk with a Purpose : School library program shifts the focus from book bans to freedom | American Libraries
- As book bans decline, concerns mount over librarian and teacher self-censoring | Hill
- American Library Association President Sam Helmick discusses censorship and information freedom | WPSD
- Faith communities have a critical role in defending our nation’s libraries | Religion News
- By the Numbers: Banned Books Week 2025 | American Libraries
- Help Us Investigate Book Bans and Educational Censorship Around America | 404
- Noted and Quoted: Intellectual Freedom | American Libraries
- AASL and ALSC Partner with Pokémon to Launch School and Public Library Pokémon Clubs | ALA
Censorship
- SCSD#2 Seeking Comments on School Book Policy | Sheridan Media (MT)
- Report: Hillsborough 2nd in the U.S. for books pulled from school libraries | Axios Tampa Bay (FL)
- Hawai‘i State Library Bans Displays For Banned Books Week | Civil Beat Honolulu (HI)
- Letter Challenges County Plan to Split From Live Oak Libraries | Effingham Herald (GA)
- ‘All American Boys’ book stirs controversy in Danvers Public Schools | Boston Globe (MA)
- Wyoming library director fired amid book dispute wins $700,000 settlement | AP (WY)
- Some Texas community colleges remove course materials amid broader push to limit gender identity discussions | Texas Tribune (TX)
- Federal court tosses Moms For Liberty associate’s case against Lowell Area Schools | Michigan Advance (MI)
- Some Kansas libraries scale back on Banned Books Week amid political tensions | KAKE (KS)
Privacy & Cybersecurity
First Amendment & Civil Rights
- Librarians and high-school students sue SC superintendent and Greenville schools over book bans | Post and Courier (SC)
- ‘Bow to the Emperor’: We Asked 50 Legal Experts About the Trump Presidency | New York Times
- Every American should read this judge’s stirring rebuke against Trump | Guardian
- American Women Are Leaving the Work Force. Why? | New York Times
- The speech wars come for Wikipedia | Politico
- Protesters and Members of the Press Challenge First Amendment Violations by Federal Forces at ICE Facility in Broadview, Illinois | ACLU (IL)
- Judge Again Blocks Guard Deployment as Trump Expands His Targets | New York Times
- Texas and Florida Have Become National Models for Using the Police State To Wage Culture War Battles | Reason
- Supreme Court Hears Free Speech Challenge to Ban on Conversion Therapy | New York Times
- Postcard From Chicago: There’s an ICE Facility in My Backyard | Vanity Fair
- In 2020, Trump Intervened in Portland’s Protests. They Got Even Worse. | New York Times
- Hollywood’s First Amendment Crusaders Are Back | Hollywood Reporter
- ‘ICE Goes Masked for a Single Reason’ | New York Times
- Feds use ‘violent force’ on protesters, press, clergy at Broadview ICE facility: lawsuit | News Nation Now
- Trump says he ‘took the freedom of speech away’ on flag burning | USA Today
Academic Freedom & Student Speech
- Weber State cracks down on censorship conference | KSL (UT)
- Free Speech Battles Erupt On Campuses And In Schools | Grand Pinnacle Tribune
- Higher Education Leaders Reject Trump Administration’s “Compact for Academic Excellence” | EduLedger
- McCarthyism in a MAGA hat? Trump’s campus deal sounds familiar to her | Los Angeles Times
- ACLS Releases Statement Rejecting White House “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” | American Historical Association
- Higher Education Update: Academic Freedom Whiplash Across Texas Campuses | Texas AFT (TX)
- Trump’s H-1B Visa Fee Could Strain Universities and Schools | New York Times
- Panelists sound alarm about state of academic freedom at Democracy Project event | Brown Daily Herald
Legislation
- Raskin and Schatz Defend the American Freedom to Read and Call to End Nearly 23,000 MAGA Book Bans in the Nation’s Schools | Jamie Raskin
State & Local Governance
- Alabama’s state library board seems hostile to literacy | News from the States (AL)
- The Fight to Christianize Texas Public Schools Just Escalated | Texas Monthly (TX)
Social Media & AI
- The Thriller Writer Who Took on a Tech Giant | New York Times
- Cuomo Deepfaked Himself. You Can Too. | Columbia Journalism Review
- How Right-Wing Influencers Are Shaping the Guard Fight in Portland | New York Times
Journalism & Media
- Knight Institute Urges Court to Restore AP to White House Press Pool | Knight First Amendment Institute
- ACLU to Federal Appeals Court: White House Retaliation Against Disfavored Reporters Puts U.S. in Dangerous Company | ACLU
Disinformation & Media Literacy
- Kamala Harris calls disinformation ‘the biggest weapon against democracy’ at Los Angeles book tour stop | USC Annenberg Media
International
- Hong Kong to install surveillance cameras with AI facial recognition | Courthouse News Service (Hong Kong)
- Kazakhstan Is Building A Surveillance State. Will China Be Its Model? | Radio Free Europe (Kazakhstan)
- China Punishes ‘Excessively Pessimistic’ Social Media Users | New York Times (China)
Around the Web
- Penguin Random House’s Save Our Stories Supper Ignites Action Against Book Bans | Penguin Random House
- Restore school libraries to aid reading freedom | Daily News
- The Trump administration is waging a systematic assault on First Amendment | Durango Herald
- Censorship is Still Un-American | Rock the Vote
- Kristi Noem Says ICE Will Be ‘All Over’ the Super Bowl | New York Times
- ‘It’s about voices’: Hawaii organizations launch reading initiatives during Banned Books Week | Hawaii News Now
- What does it actually mean to ban a book in the US? | USA Today
- Project at Fayetteville Public Library calls attention to banned books | Arkansas Democrat Gazette
- Civil Rights Lawyer Bryan Stevenson on How America’s Story Should Be Told | New York Times
- Banned Books Week: A Local Reflection From a Pennridge School District Dad | Bucks County Beacon
- Turning the page on pride: Book bans target LGBTQ+ stories | LBCurrent
- The New York Public Library Announces Slate of New Programming for Banned Books Week | City Life
- Book bans create division and stifle freedom of speech and expression | Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
- Celebrate (and Protect) Your Right to Read | Westword
- San Diego Public Library to showcase banned books | KUSI
- Ekstrom Library to celebrate Banned Books week | Louisville Cardinal
- A Half Century of American Book Banning | Atlantic
- PRIDE Storytime ft. Lil Miss Hot Mess (Banned Books Week Edition) | NPR
- Head of Kansas’ Eisenhower library forced out over Trump demand for museum sword | Kansas City
- Banned Books Week 2025: Censorship is so 1984. Read for Your Rights. | Washoe Life
- The dumbing down of America, one banned book at a time | Salon
- Banned Books Week 2025: Freedom to Read, Freedom to Learn | Learning for Justice
- Why we must fight attempts to undermine our freedom to read | Maine Morning Star
- It’s Banned Books Week: Here Are The Titles Most Often Removed From Libraries | Patch
- Front Range libraries push “freedom to read” during Banned Books Week | KUNC
- Loutit District Library – Right to Read & Banned Books Exhibit | WGHN
- Tug of war over what books NC schoolchildren can read | Carolina Public Press
- Banned Books Week 2025: Censorship is so 1984! | Bentley University
- Banned Books Week 2025 | ACLU
- New Gallup Poll: 1 in 4 Teachers Don’t Have Necessary Resources, Support Staff | 74
- In ‘book sanctuary’ Anne Arundel, library system leans into Banned Books Week | Baltimore Sun
- Banned Books Week: Censorship is so 1984 | University of North Dakota
- ‘A library should have something for everyone’: Library sets events for Banned Books Week | Worcester Magazine
- Baker & Taylor Closing | Shelf Awareness
- Facts and Action for Banned Books Week | GLAAD
- At Lenox Library’s ‘Banned Bookathon,’ readers push back against censorship — one book at a time | Berkshire Eagle
- Book bans are being ‘normalized.’ What does that mean for classrooms? | USA Today
- The Real Threat to Free Speech in America is From the Right, Not the Left—Stop Pretending Otherwise | Literary Hub
- Race for Southern school board reflects the culture wars roiling across the country | York Daily Record
ALA News
- New from ACRL – “Navigating Disability in the Academic Library Workplace”
- AI and information access
- Applications open for new ALA initiative to advance sustainability in libraries
- Core Webinar: Build Your Brand, Build Your Community
- Run for ALA President-elect or Councilor-at-Large by petition
- Call for Volunteers: Serve on ALA Award Juries
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