Seven residents of Llano County, Texas Monday filed a federal lawsuit against elected officials and library leaders regarding restricted access to and removal of library books. The plaintiffs alleged that defendants violated the First Amendment “by ordering the restriction and removal of library books that they subjectively disagreed with or disliked” and the Fourteenth Amendment by “blocking public access to Library Board meetings, adopting and implementing library collection and reconsidering policies without final approval of the Commissioners Court or the Llano County Library System Director, and denying the public of proper notice and the opportunity to be heard before restricting and removing library books.”

These allegations stem from a censorship campaign that lasted several months “to remove and restrict access to a wide array of books[.]” The plaintiffs allege defendants’ “censorship campaign targeted books that conflicted with Defendants’ subjective opinions, as well as their political and religious views.”

Further, the plaintiffs state:

Public libraries are not places of government indoctrination. They are not places where the people in power can dictate what their citizens are permitted to read about and learn. When government actors target public library books because they disagree with and intend to suppress the ideas contained within them, it jeopardizes the freedoms of everyone.

Through this lawsuit, the Llano residents desire injunctive relief, attorneys’ fees, and any other relief the Court deems appropriate. Plaintiff and library patron Leila Green Little also created a GoFundMe for Barbara “Suzette” Baker, a librarian she says was fired for standing up for ethics and “the right to read.”