Intellectual Freedom News 4/25/2025
Highlights
- Huge Impact. One Association. | ALA
- 11 Questions: Lisa Varga | American Libraries
- ALA offers advice on federal grant cancellations | ALA
- ALA launches FY 2026 #FundLibraries campaign, driving congressional support to fully fund federal programs at risk of elimination | ALA
- A cult clothier and iconic publishing house join forces to fight book bans | Fast Company
Censorship
- Texas schools nix lesson over Virginia state flag’s exposed breast | Washington Post (TX)
- US Naval Academy canceled author’s lecture that would have criticized book bans | CNN
- The Naval Academy Canceled My Lecture on Wisdom | New York Times
- Tennessee county sued for banning books without even reading them | LGBTQ Nation (TN)
- Anti-censorship group raises money to help Alabama library after pause in state funding | Montgomery Advertiser (AL)
- Ousted Librarian Sues Campbell County After Pride Month, Books Controversies | Cowboy State Daily (WY)
- First Amendment dispute intensifies as Alabama libraries resist book relocation demands | AL.com (AL)
- Richland school leaders consider rejecting controversial ‘race and curriculum’ policy | Tri-City Herald (WA)
- Controversy over certain books in the Amarillo Public Library | KAMR (TX)
- Alabama library’s state funding remains suspended as book relocation dispute continues | AL.com (AL)
- Radnor school board votes to restore ‘Gender Queer’ and two other banned books to library | Philadelphia Inquirer (PA)
- Christian County Library won’t label LGBTQ books, will explore alternatives | Springfield News-Leader (MO)
- Commissioners approve “PG” stickers for library books with mature themes | Almance News (NC)
Privacy & Cybersecurity
First Amendment & Civil Rights
- Supreme Court to hear religious freedom case involving LGBTQ+ storybooks | Washington Post
- Supreme Court Story Time: Justices Consider Children’s Books With L.G.B.T.Q. Themes | New York Times
- A prince and knight fall in love and the Supreme Court is asked to intervene | Minnesota Star Tribune
- Supreme Court weighs who should decide public school curriculum: Judges or school boards?
| NPR - Supreme Court appears likely to let students opt out of hearing LGBTQ+ books in class | USA Today
- Penguin Random House Leads Amicus Brief in LGBTQ+ Books Case | Publishing Perspectives
- Minnesota Sues Trump Administration Over Limits on Transgender Athletes | New York Times (MN)
- ‘What did I say in class today?’: Teachers feel watched under Trump’s anti-DEI push | NPR
- Donald Trump Vows to Make America ‘More Religious’ Than Ever Before | Newsweek
- Law Firms, Universities, and Now Civil Society Groups Are in Trump’s Sights for Punitive Action | Chornicle of Philanthropy
- ‘No nonprofit is safe’: Trump escalates federal crackdown on civil society organizations | Nation of Change
- Angst Builds Inside Federal Agency Over Trump’s Moves Against Law Firms | New York Times
- Nonprofits Under Fire: How the IRS Can — and Cannot — Revoke Federal Tax-Exempt Status | Nonprofit Alliance
- NSF starts to kill grants that violate Trump’s war on diversity efforts | Science
- Supreme Court blocks, for now, new deportations under Alien Enemies Act | NPR
- Trump’s Political Targeting of the Legal Profession Is an Attack on the First Amendment | American Oversight
- Bill to establish school censorship boards is a terrible idea | NC Newsline
- Trump Says Undocumented Immigrants Shouldn’t Get Trials Before Deportation | New York Times
- University of Houston students rally for free speech, visa rights | KHOU (TX)
- Civil liberties groups partner in demand of UT System to end drag ban after Texas A&M victory | KBTX (TX)
- Federal panel considers Arkansas critical race theory law | Courthouse News Service (AR)
- Educators Speak Out on Harms of Unlawful Education Department Directive | ACLU
- Cornell Cancels Kehlani Performance Over Her Stance on the War in Gaza | New York Times
- Court Blocks Documentary Proof-of-Citizenship Provision in Voting Executive Order | ACLU
- Department of Education policy targeting DEI and other race-related school programs is likely unconconstitutional, judge rules | CNN
- The Deportation of Dissent | Bedrock Principle
Academic Freedom & Student Speech
- ACLU sues Trump administration for targeting international students | Hill
- Losing International Students Could Devastate Many Colleges | New York Times
- Our Foreign Students Are Terrified, and They’re Right to Be | New York Times
- Florida college students scared, on edge over campus police’s cooperation with ICE | NBC News (FL)
- Cornell Faculty in Support of Democracy and Academic Freedom | Cornell Review
- BREAKING: Faculty Call for Coordinated Defense on Academic Freedom | Whtiman Wire (WA)
- Attacks on Universities over Gaza Protests Threaten Students’ Free Speech | Human Rights First
- U of M faculty greenlight resolution to establish mutual defense compact among Big Ten schools | Michigan Advance
- Members of Congress Visit Graduate Students Being Held in Louisiana | New York Times
- Iowa Board of Regents member discusses UI’s center for intellectual freedom | WHO13 (IA)
- Read the full letter from universities opposing ‘government intrusion’ | PBS
- Faculty and students speak out for academic freedom at Teach In | Northern Iowan (IA)
- Federal government appeals judge’s order to move detained Tufts student Rumeysa Öztürk to Vermont | NBC News
Legislation
- Lawmakers vote to fire all members of Arkansas State Library Board | NPR (AR)
- House advances effort to ban books deemed pornographic regardless of literary value | Miami Times (FL)
- Arkansas Legislature Passes Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act | JD Supra (AR)
- Delaware lawmakers introduce bipartisan legislation to limit book bans in schools and libraries | Delaware Public Media (DE)
- Bill trying to stop Iowa universities from losing accreditation because of new state laws awaits governor’s signature | Little Village (IA)
- North Dakota’s GOP governor vetoes library restrictions, school voucher program | AP (ND)
- NC Senate to review bill on restricting content in school libraries amid book ban debate | WCTI (NC)
State & Local Governance
- Decatur School Board passes a divisive tentative budget, rescinds equity policies | Decaturish (GA)
- UC faculty to consider its own high school ethnic studies mandate | EdSource
- DEADLINE: Okla. schools given until April 24 to ban DEI or lose federal funds | KJRH (OK)
- Critchfield spells out ‘ongoing’ plan to comply with federal DEI dictates | Idaho Ed News (ID)
- Senate set to approve Missouri governor’s shakeup of state education board | Missouri Independent (MO)
Net Neutrality & Broadband Access
- Trump Policies Might Delay Efforts to Close the Broadband Divide by Years | CNET
- The broadband balancing act and the future of rural connectivity | Broadband Communities
Social Media & AI
Journalism & Media
- The FCC’s Misguided Efforts to Police News Trump Disdains | AEI
- Trump Just Scrapped My Anti-Kremlin Streaming Platform | New York Times
- Sarah Palin’s defamation suit retrial against the New York Times raises first amendment concerns | Guardian
- Trump-Allied Prosecutor Sends Letters to Medical Journals Alleging Bias | New York Times
- ‘60 Minutes’ Chief Resigns in Emotional Meeting: ‘The Company Is Done With Me’ | New York Times
- To journalists from repressive countries, the U.S. is feeling more and more like home | Mission Local
- Judge Blocks Trump Effort to Dismantle Voice of America | New York Times
Disinformation & Media Literacy
- Under Trump, National Security Guardrails Vanish | New York Times
- America’s fact fight fades | Axios
- NSF cancels over 400 grants covering disinformation, deepfakes and STEM education | NextGov
- ‘Media and Propaganda in an Age of Disinformation’ | Penn Today
Around the Web
- What’s Happening Is Not Normal. America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal. | New York Times
- As SCOTUS reviews lawsuit, 4 bestselling authors talk about bans of their work in Brevard | Florida Today
- Students with Disabilities Deserve Better: Autism Acceptance Deserves Truth, Not Harmful Disinformation | EdTrust
- When the Supreme Court Spoke With One Voice | New York Times
- Book censorship: Why it’s not going to stop with the books, no matter how you spin it | Daily Motivation News
- Trump Wants You to Think Resistance Is Futile. It Is Not. | New York Times
- What happened when Proud Boys stormed a drag-queen story hour | Mission Local
- NC Republicans say their new bill is not about banning books. Yes, it sure is | Opinion | Charlotte Observer
- Commentary: Before they open a book: the politicization of Orange County’s public libraries | Daily Pilot
- Off the Shelf: Library censorship is growing | Mississippi Valley Publishing
- Rebuilding the Lake Luzerne library, two years after a drag story hour controversy shut its doors | NCPR
- White House order threatens library funding: Baldwin and NY leaders speak out | LI Herald
- Who Is J. Harvie Wilkinson, the Judge Behind a Scathing Rebuke of the White House? | New York Times
- Caucus of African American Leaders protest Trump administration’s book ban at US Naval Academy | WBAL
- Book banning in America’s military academies could be the tip of the iceberg | PennLive letters | PennLive
- Families Against Book Bans get national commendation | Bluffton Today
- Pa. GOP lawmaker apologizes for questioning a 12-year-old about pornography at civics event | PennLive
- Mt. Lebanon Library declares itself a ‘book sanctuary’ | Observer-Reporter
- Newsom fights for library funding as Trump administration terminates grants | WENY
- It’s happening here: when book bans hit home | Minnesota Reformer
- Arabs: The Weak Link in the US Civil Liberties Chain | Arab American Institute
- E.P.A. Set to Cancel Grants Aimed at Protecting Children From Toxic Chemicals | New York Times
- Banned book swap sparks discussion among MSU students | State News
- ‘Boomerang in a Very Bad Way’: How Trump’s Antisemitism Push Could Backfire | Politico
- Critics Call Rubio’s Overhaul Plan a Blow to U.S. Values | New York Times
- NYC Library Workers Say Cuomo’s Campaign Asked If They’ve Considered Charging for Services | Hell Gate NYC
- How one Annapolis bookstore is combating USNA book removals | Capital Gazette
- ‘PORN’ signs divide an Orange County city already on edge | LAist
- Triplex Cinema, Great Barrington Public Libraries to kick off “Banned Books on Film” series with “Fahrenheit 451” in May | WAMC
- Identity-Based Bullying Isn’t New, but It Could Get Even Worse. Here’s Why I Hope the Supreme Court Rules for Inclusivity in Mahmoud v. Taylor. | National Women’s Law Center
- Literary Advocates Condemn Florida Book Banning Bill | Publishers Weekly
- Florida’s war on books is a war on knowledge | Miami Hurricane
ALA News
- Miriam Tuliao to run 18 miles for the Spectrum Scholarship Program
- Sanford Berman recipient of SRRT’s Herb Biblo Outstanding Leadership Award for Social Justice & Equality
- Teen-friendly school library spaces and services
- Best of Core Forum: Neurodiversity in the Academic Library
- Jonathan Victor Baldoza selected as the 2025 LHRT Justin Winsor Award Winner
- Shannon Bailey receives AASL Frances Henne Award
- New posters from award-winning illustrators and more debut in Spring/Summer 2025 ALA Graphics catalog
- Best of Core Forum: Neurodivergent Leadership: Learning to Lead in a Neurotypical World
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