Alaskan Book Ban Ruled Unconstitutional
In an October victory for freedom-to-read activists, the Matanuska-Susinta Borough School District in Alaska has agreed to pay $89,000 for indiscriminately removing 56 books from library shelves.
In November of 2023, the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska, the Northern Justice Project, and eight local plaintiffs filed a suit against the district for the removal of these books from school libraries without due process. However, the district maintains that each book was reviewed carefully before banning and that their decisions were sound. The books are to be returned to school libraries.
Titles removed included Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, and many books that included or centered on LGBTQ+ characters. The removal of these titles was referred to by Federal Judge Sharon Gleason as a “suppression of ideas.”
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