 |
 |
Surprise! This bill likely goes to committee within the next few hours. If you can email committee members before then please do (https://www.capitol.tn.gov/senate/committees/judiciary.html). If not, these talking points can used when communicating with the Governor's office. - Nothing in a school library is obscene. Obscenity is a crime. For something to be obscene, and someone be charged with obscenity for distributing/publishing it, the material in question has to 'pass' the Miller test. This is the standard of federal and state law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_test - Nothing in a school library is pornography. Pornography is material whose primary intent is to sexually arouse. If the examples our opponents have used are pornography for you that is between you and your Lord. (Also, may that Lord help you.) - This law is redundant. The mention of obscenity and pornography is an obfuscation. There may be titles in a library collection community members object to for a variety of reasons. This is not uncommon. Most schools have a policy to address this. If they do not, they will be forced to if Age Appropriate Materials Act passes (which it likely will). - This legislation will be use to censor books. Our opponents say this is not about banning books but will free tout they have '70 books' they want to ban. Let's keep America great. Let's keep free speech. - This bill is poorly conceived and will overburden school boards. School boards' approve policy and school's employees carry it out. As written, if anyone complains about a book, a school board will have to read it and vote. Buy your school board some donuts and coffee. They are going to be busy. - This bill is poorly conceived and will overburden law enforcement. Obscenity is a criminal complaint, but there is nothing obscene in school libraries. You don't get to call the cops because you don't like a book. Well, you can but nothing will come of it and you'll waste a lot of time and money. https://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/news/local/article_abfaf845-ef61-54ad-903b-fe5f71eaeb9f.html - This bill is poorly conceived and could trigger First Amendment lawsuits. Summarily removing books from libraries violates children's First Amendment rights. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/457/853 Thanks, Bryan