FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The fate of a law that’s set to go into effect next week is in the hands of a federal judge. Judge Timothy L. Brooks will now decide whether to grant a preliminary injunction over a lawsuit concerning the library obscenity bill.
Arguments were heard over Act 372, known as the library obscenity bill. Multiple libraries and library patrons, including the Fayetteville Public Library, say the act is unconstitutional and want the judge to issue a preliminary injunction before this act becomes law in a week.
The plaintiffs say the act broadens who can call library material obscene and can punish someone caught giving that content to minors. An attorney for several of the plaintiffs, Bettina Brownstein, says section one of the act is over-broad and would allow segregation of materials that are harmful for five-year-old minors up to 17-year-old minors whom it wouldn’t be harmful for.
“That would make it a criminal act on the part of a library. You really want your librarians to be afraid of committing a crime for trying to, you know, deliver reading material and other kinds of material to people in the community? No,” said Brownstein.
They also disagree with section five of the act, saying it is unconstitutionally vague and would cause viewpoint discrimination.
“It would allow discrimination against viewpoints about sexual orientation, race, all kinds of things. And that's, we think, built into that or encourages that in Section Five. For that reason, which that's all, viewpoint discrimination is not permitted under the First Amendment to the Constitution,” she said.
The defendants, which include the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office, deny the plaintiff’s motion and say this law is meant to protect children from obscene material. They declined to go on camera, but Attorney General Tim Griffin says he will continue to vigorously defend the constitutionality of the act.
Judge Brooks plans to issue a written ruling by the end of the week.
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