Intellectual Freedom News 9/4/2026
Highlights
- Lessons for Preserving Intellectual Freedom in Libraries | Knology
- AASL Opens Call For 2027 AASL National Conference Committee Members | ALA
Censorship
- Peoria school board clashes over revised DEI policy | Arizona’s Family (AZ)
- Arkansas librarian fired after opposing book ban efforts to receive $275K in settlement | KUAR (AR)
- For Dorothy Lazard, the public library was ‘a forest of dreams and possibilities’ | Oaklandside (CA)
- Mold, displacement and book bans: Austin council’s other big decisions | Austin American-Statesman (TX)
- Elizabethtown Area school board overhauls book access policies, approves AI rules | LancasterOnline (PA)
- Tensions run high at N.J. school board meeting. Superintendent calls it an ‘embarrassment.’ | NJ.com (NJ)
- Harford County schools seek community members to review challenged library books | CBS News (MD)
- As school libraries are pushed to remove books, a West Texas district stands by its library council | Texas Standard (TX)
- Here are some of the books Dan Patrick wants removed from schools – or else | Dallas Observer (TX)
- ‘There are no compromises when it comes to protecting our children’ — Transgender children’s books provoke call to action as funding deadline looms | 1819 (AL)
- Big Spring School Board rejects proposed curriculum committee after community debate | FOX43 (PA)
- Christian teacher pressures elementary school into removing over 20 LGBTQ+ children’s books | LGBTQ Nation (TN)
- Multiple Maryland Organizations File Appeal Over Somerset County Media Policy | WMDT (MD)
- As local libraries navigate censorship law, national group calls for repeal | Arkansas Times (AR)
- Wake School Board Members Reluctantly Consider Policies on Religious Instruction, ‘Inappropriate’ Book | INDY Week (IN)
- Higley board removes Trevor Noah’s ‘Born a Crime’ from expense voucher | Gilbert Independent (AZ)
- Arkansas county fired this librarian for opposing LGBTQ+ book censorship. Now it must pay $275K | Advocate (AR)
Privacy & Cybersecurity
- Gov. Abbott blocks state agencies from spending money on Flock cameras | Texas Tribune (TX)
- Police Are Spending Opioid Settlement Funds on Flock Cameras | Mother Jones
- I went looking for surveillance cameras in my neighbourhood: I found so many more than I thought | BBC
- Florida to remove all Flock cameras from state highway roads | ABC News (FL)
- Why the Flock Backlash Has Gotten So Intense | Atlantic
- Communities Nationwide Tearing Down Flock Cameras, Quietly Replacing Them With These Brands | Military.com
First Amendment & Civil Rights
- Free Speech Groups Sound Alarm on “Red Scare” Repression of ICE Watch Activists | Truthout
- Roy Cohn, Robert Mapplethorpe and a Trump-Era Dilemma Over Free Speech | New York Times
- Trump cannot deport students for criticizing Israel, judge rules | PBS
- Whistle-Blower Says Trump Officials Are Defying Court Orders on Voting by Mail | New York Times
- Does the free speech clause of the First Amendment require states to fund alternatives to public education? | Free Speech Center
- Trump Moves to Strip Tax Exemption From Schools That Aid Minority Students | New York Times
Academic Freedom & Student Speech
- West Point professor fired after pushing back on limitations to teaching climate change, lawsuit says | Stars and Stripes
- Trump administration seeks to restrict internships for international students | KELO
- AAUP Condemns US Ambassador’s Hypocrisy on Academic Freedom | AAUP
- This 17-year UH professor wants academic freedom. She decided she had to leave Texas to find it. | Houston Chronicle (TX)
- Iowa mandate gives the Center for Intellectual Freedom a captive audience | Daily Iowan (IA)
- Yale demonstrators ring in semester with calls on school to ‘democratize’ | CT Mirror (CT)
- Linda McMahon’s Letter to Colleges Is a Trap | New York Times
Legislation
- New Ohio Senate bill would legislate higher ed viewpoints, further power of SB 1 | Ohio Capital Journal (OH)
- The federal program keeping libraries online? The FCC might gut it | IndyStar
- US House passes bill penalizing universities that participate in boycott of Israel | Guardian
State & Local Governance
- Alabama state library board creates sample policies to implement controversial rule changes | Alabama Reflector (AL)
- Complaint filed against Racine school board member, state Assembly candidate following profane post against women | Wisconsin Public Radio (WI)
- Are book vendors intentionally selling pornographic content to public schools? Utah is spending $60K to find out. | Salt Lake Tribune (UT)
Social Media & A.I.
- Influencers Have a Lot to Say About Politics. Many Are Quietly Paid for It. | New York Times
- Judge rules Trump administration illegally punished AI firm Anthropic | CBS News
- A.I. Is to Be Banned in N.Y.C. Elementary and Middle Schools | New York Times (NY)
- Are Influencers Supporting Book Bans? | Cold Magazine
- After OpenAI’s Bots Went Rogue, Watchdogs Were Kept on a Short Leash | New York Times
Media & Digital Literacy
- Fired Stars and Stripes staff sue Pentagon, alleging First Amendment violations | CNN
- Trump urges FCC to probe media polling, punish NBC moderator | Fortune
- Trump says he will report NBC host to FCC for ‘rebuke or punishment’ | Washington Post
- How Mass Surveillance From Online Advertising Puts Journalists at Risk | Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights
International
- Turkey seizes jailed Erdoğan rival’s book, bans sales | Stockholm Center for Freedom (Turkey)
- Bondi library returns book How to Sell a Genocide to shelves after State Library ‘outlines the law’ | Guardian (Australia)
- Punishment and Silence: China Pulls Out the Disaster Playbook in Tibet | New York Times (China)
- Latvia banned the import of Russian books on September 1. That won’t get them off the shelves: booksellers say shipments will just clear customs elsewhere in the EU. | Meduza (Latvia)
Around the Web
- ‘At Last, We Know We Are Not Alone’: Gloria Steinem on Ms., the Feminist Movement and the Work Still Ahead | Ms. Magazine
- Perry: Republicans fought ‘indoctrination.’ Now they’re telling students what to study. | Minnesota Star Tribune
- Utah LGBTQ+ Chamber hosts banned book giveaway | ABC4
- How Trump’s Policy Agenda Runs Through One Federal Court, in Texas | New York Times
- Canada capitalises on US university crackdown to poach top American academics | ET Education
- How the Austin Public Library picks books | KXAN
- Opinion: There Is No Such Thing as a Dangerous Book | Austin Chronicle
- ‘Time Capsules’: Huge San Francisco Archive of Kids’ Books Traces Long History of LGBTQ Families | KQED
- Report: Public Libraries Face ‘Existential Threat,’ Putting Books, Information and People at Risk | PEN America
- Censorship as Segregation: Book Bans and the Return of “Separate But Equal” | Cornell Law Review
- ‘The Kids Simply Cannot Handle It’: Why New York Students Are Reading Fewer Books | 74
- Dan Patrick’s book ban isn’t dumb. It’s worse than that. | Opinion | Houston Chronicle
- Library to host community conversation on Ellen Hopkins’ novel Crank | Vernon Reporter
- Freedom to Read Poster Contest at Stonington Free Library | CT Examiner
ALA News
- Accepting Applications for the 2027 Lois Ann Gregory-Wood Fellowship
- 2026 Library Design Showcase recognizes 15 library construction and restoration projects
- ALA announces 2026-2027 Spectrum Scholars
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