Federal Judge Declines to Temporarily Block School Book Bans As Tennessee Public Libraries Also Face Crisis

A federal judge has declined to temporarily block the removal of books from school libraries in one of Tennessee’s largest districts. Earlier this year in Rutherford County, three high school students, represented by the ACLU of Tennessee, filed suit against their school board after more than 140 books were removed from library shelves. The students contend that these bans violate their First Amendment rights and deny access to "crucial, acclaimed, and historical works."

This week, U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson declined to issue a preliminary injunction that would have halted the removals while the case proceeds to trial. The judge noted that the school board had not barred students from acquiring the books elsewhere, but had instead "opted not to carry them on school library bookshelves."

The lawsuit marks the first significant legal challenge to Tennessee’s expanded school book statute, enacted in 2024, which has already led to the removal of hundreds of books statewide.

Among the books removed in Rutherford County schools:

• Beloved, Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the legacy of slavery,
• Catch-22, the classic World War II satire,
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a popular young-adult novel with a gay supporting character, and
• Wicked, the modern retelling of The Wizard of Oz.

Under the revised law, schools are required to remove any material deemed "obscene" or considered "patently offensive". These are terms that are, arguably, dangerously broad and open to abuse.

As noted by Chalkbeat, a 2024 survey of members of the Tennessee Association of School Librarians found that more than 1,100 titles were removed in just a few months, as schools grappled with how to interpret the newly expanded law. PEN America named Tennessee among the top 3 states with the largest number of book bans in the last school year.

This comes as Tennessee’s public libraries are facing unprecedented pressure from the Secretary of State. In October, the Tennessee Secretary of State issued letters to 181 public libraries ordering them to conduct sweeping "age-appropriateness" audits of their children’s collections, citing school law and a federal executive order on gender ideology that many legal experts say do not apply to public libraries at all.

This directive has already triggered emergency closures of public library branches in Rutherford County, sparked public protests in Murfreesboro, and fueled growing concern among library boards statewide over constitutional risks, threats to funding, and unlawful censorship. While school districts battle one statute in court, public libraries are being drawn into the same political conflict.

The school case is not expected to go to trial until late 2026. In the meantime, public libraries are being forced to make immediate decisions that could permanently alter their collections, governance, and legal standing. The Tennessee Freedom to Read Project was created in response to this moment, which demands clarity, coordination, and courage across both school and public library systems.