Intellectual Freedom News 4/4/2025
Highlights
- ALA says White House “cutting off opportunity” for Americans as administration cuts IMLS staff | ALA
- ALA responds to the termination of IMLS grants in several states | ALA
- Core 5 Year Anniversary Gala Features Ray Arsenault | ALA
Censorship
- Naval Academy Takes Steps to End Diversity Policies in Books and Admissions | New York Times
- Agency funding libraries and museums puts all employees on leave ahead of major cuts | Federal News Network
- Ex-librarian gets $225K settlement | DailyTrib (TX)
- Trump allies deploy “book-banning pastor” to school districts across the country | Popular Information
- This Alabama library’s funding threatened over these 35 titles – see the full list | AL.com (AL)
- Virginia school puts up controversial ABCs display on Women’s History Month, starting with ‘A is for Abortion’ | FOX News (VA)
- RUSD board backs book bans, parent notification | Redlands Community News (CA)
- Minnesota Students Rally Against School Book Bans in Defiance of Library Censorship Policies | Hoodline (MN)
- Residents speak against policy to ban books with sexually explicit content from Elizabethtown schools | Lancaster Online (PA)
- Siuslaw School District Removes Graphic Novel Flamer From the High School Library | NCAC (OR)
- In Tennessee, Rutherford County public libraries vote to remove materials that promote transgender themes. | NCAC (TN)
- Georgetown Librarian Susan Cooper speaks against removal of library books | Austin American-Statesman (TX)
- Colorado school district rejects donation of “banned” books to be returned to library shelves | Union-Bulletin (CO)
- DCPS votes to permanently remove challenged book about sexual abuse from high school shelves | News4Jax (FL)
- Court weighs appeal over ‘explicit’ books in Michigan school district library | Michigan Live (MI)
- Palestine-themed children’s book will remain at Falls Church library | ARLnow (VA)
- A Texas School Board Cut State-Approved Textbook Chapters About Diversity. A Board Member Says Material Violated the Law | ProPublica (TX)
- Duval School Board removes district’s first challenged book, ‘Identical’ | Jax Today (FL)
Privacy & Cybersecurity
- Unmarked Vans. Secret Lists. Public Denunciations. Our Police State Has Arrived. | New York Times
- McMahon Says Schools With ‘Gender Plans’ Could Be Violating Federal Privacy Law | EducationWeek
- Encrypted, But Exposed: Why Signal Falls Short for Classified Communications | KARK
- Republicans are still pushing for child safety laws, while Democrats wonder if a weakened FTC can enforce them | Verge
- School Surveillance Systems Threaten Student Privacy, New Knight Institute Lawsuit Alleges | Teen Vogue
First Amendment & Civil Rights
- Trump Administration Threatens to Withhold Funds From Public Schools | New York Times
- Library Patrons Sue Greenville County Over Widespread Removals and Restrictions of LGBTQ Books | ACLU (SC)
- Trump annoyed the Smithsonian isn’t promoting discredited racial ideas | ArsTechnica
- Loud, boisterous rival protests of religious freedom among Catholics and satanists turn violent | News from the States (KS)
- In Oklahoma, Counting Migrant Students May Have Gone Too Far | New York Times (OK)
- Trump D.C. Executive Order Overreaches Local Affairs and Risks Greater Criminalization of Immigrants, Poverty, and Protest | Legal Defense Fund
- A battle over religion and schools in Oklahoma could decide the future of the First Amendment | NBC News (OK)
- Texas AG requests depositions from Dallas ISD officials over transgender athlete policies | Dallas Morning News (TX)
- Feds investigating Maine over student gender transition claims | Hill (ME)
- Trump asks Supreme Court to allow deportations under Alien Enemies Act | Oregon Public Broadcasting
- PEN America Joins News Organizations Asking a Federal Court to Apply a State Anti-SLAPP Law | PEN America
- Can I Teach the First Amendment If I Only Have a Green Card? | Atlantic
- Voting Rights Groups Challenge Trump’s Recent Executive Order | ACLU
- Federal judge strikes down Iowa’s law banning books depicting sex acts from school libraries — again | Iowa Public Radio (IA)
- Judge blocks Arkansas age assurance law, blasts it as hatchet job on free speech | Biometric Update (AR)
- Nobel Laureate and Ex-Leader of Costa Rica Says U.S. Revoked His Visa | New York Times
- What the detainments of students and faculty at American universities mean for the First Amendment | 1A
- Trump administration closes three DHS offices focused on civil rights and oversight | Economic Policy Institute
Academic Freedom & Student Speech
- How Colleges Are Cracking Down on Students Now | New York Times
- Private groups work to identify and report student protesters for possible deportation | AP
- Targeting of Tufts Student for Deportation Stuns Friends and Teachers | New York Times
- The End of College Life | Atlantic
- University of Minnesota Student Detained by Immigration Agents | New York Times
- Why Trump’s brutal crackdown on free speech is unprecedented in the US | Guardian
- Leaders of Harvard’s Middle Eastern Studies Center Will Leave | New York Times
- New College fires Chinese professor under controversial Florida law | Tampa Bay Times (FL)
- Columbia President Is Replaced as Trump Threatens University’s Funding | New York Times
- Silence Isn’t a Strategy: Academic Leaders Must Resist Assault on Higher Ed | Truthout
- Trump Administration Will Review Billions in Funding for Harvard | New York Times
- Trump administration suspends a host of federal grants to Princeton University | NBC News
- Trump Administration Set to Pause $510 Million for Brown University | New York Times
- Academic Freedom in Peril | New York Review
Legislation
- Governor signs ban on DEI in Ohio public colleges despite opposition by students and teachers | WFMJ (OH)
- Senate Bill Targets Catcher And The Rye And Many Other Books | Reform Austin (TX)
- Legislators advance ban on sexual content in schools, plus 5 GOP-led bills on transgender issues | Concord Mnitor (NH)
- Republicans advance bills to create book removal process in public schools | New Hampshire Bulletin (NH)
- Rightwing groups across US push new bans to limit ‘obscene’ books in libraries | Guardian
- Bill boosts parental control over health, sex ed, and school library materials | Carolina Journal (NC)
- Senate Democrats Keep School Book Decisions Local and Fair | Skanner (OR)
- Senate advances bill restricting book bans in Oregon to the House | Statesman Journal (OR)
- Arkansas Senate narrowly OKs dissolution of State Library; bill heads to House | Arkansas Advocate (AR)
- Democrats fear more book bans as House panel advances new bill | Florida Politics (FL)
- Young Democrats: Senate Bill 1 reduces Ohio universities to propaganda machines | Letters | Cincinnati Enquirer (OH)
State & Local Governance
- SC Board of Ed. postpones vote on banning 10 books from K-12 schools | WSPA (SC)
- SC board halts book bans, questions fairness as Beaufort County resident leads push | Island Packet (SC)
- Utah State Board of Education to consider resolution tying DEI programs to communist goals | Utah News Dispatch (UT)
- Horne pushes Arizona schools to comply with federal privacy rules | KVOA (AZ)
Social Media & AI
- Capitol Hill hearing on ‘censorship industrial complex’ under Biden based on ‘fiction’, says expert | Guardian
- Senators revive efforts to strip tech companies of key legal protection | Hill
- E.U. Prepares Major Penalties Against Elon Musk’s X | New York Times
Journalism & Media
- Opinion | HB224 endangers First Amendment rights in Alabama | Alabama Political Reporter (AL)
Disinformation & Media Literacy
- Top F.D.A. Vaccine Official Resigns, Citing Kennedy’s ‘Misinformation and Lies’ | New York Times
- Trump Fires 6 N.S.C. Officials After Oval Office Meeting With Laura Loomer | New York Times
International
- ‘They Will Label Us as Spies’: The Afghan Students Abandoned by America | New York Times (Afghanistan)
- Rally calls for freedom of expression at Belleville Public Library | Intelligencer (Canada)
- Myanmar’s Internet Censorship Limits Information About Quake | New York Times (Myanmar)
- UK braced for ‘free speech’ row with JD Vance as far-right websites spurn Online Safety Act | Record (United Kingdom)
Around the Web
- We Are All Living in George Orwell’s World Now | New York Times
- “Reading builds empathy”: The case for saving America’s libraries | Salon
- School board legislation sparks opposition after financially troubled district faces closure | AZ Capitol Times
- Readers respond: Preserve access to books with SB 1098 | Oregon Live
- To Save Democracy, Here’s a Playbook That Works | New York Times
- The Freedom to Read Act protects the free flow of ideas, essential to democracy | Rhode Island Current
- What Happens When There’s a Real National Security Crisis? | New York Times
- New legal filing calls for immediate removal of Keller ISD board members who supported plan to split | CBS News
- Drag queen slams “monster” Marjorie Taylor Greene for calling her a “sexual predator” | LGBTQ Nation
- Another Big Law Firm Reaches Agreement With Trump | New York Times
- No books allowed: What libraries face when challenges hit shelves | Nexus
- Wisconsin’s Message for Trump | Atlantic
- Jersey City Library Set to Welcome ‘The Hammer’ to Talk on Censorship, Book Bans | TapInto Jersey City
- Trump’s attacks on museums and libraries echo the Nazi playbook | MSNBC
ALA News
- Kennesaw State University Libraries Recruitment and Retention Task Force Receives Equality Award
- Jason Skiba receives AASL Distinguished School Administrator Award
- Core Webinar – Best of Core Forum: Understanding and Fighting Anti-Trans Misinformation
- Core Awards & President’s Program Featuring Gwen Westerman
- Travel Grants Available for First-Time AASL National Conference Attendees
- Rebel Falls by Tim Wendel is the winner of the 2025 W.Y. Boyd Literary Award
- Danielle Schwessinger receives AASL Innovative Reading Grant
- Clara Bohrer is the recipient of the 2025 Joseph W. Lippincott Award
- AASL Announces Toor Scholarship Recipients
- ALA applauds bipartisan opposition to attempt to eliminate IMLS
- Core Webinar – Best of Core Forum: Judging a Book by Its Cover; Investigating Arsenic and Other Heavy Metals in 19th Century Book Bindings
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