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A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Elizabeth school district to return 19 banned books to the shelves of its school libraries by 5 p.m. on Saturday.
The order represents the second time U.S. District Court Judge Charlotte Sweeney has ordered the books returned to school library shelves. She originally ordered their return by March 25, but paused that deadline after the district filed a motion objecting to the books’ return. Her latest order represents the decision she made after reconsidering the issue.
It’s not yet clear if the district will have to comply.
A spokesperson for the Elizabeth district said by email Thursday evening that the district is renewing its emergency motion to halt legal enforcement of the books’ return and would file it with the court by midnight.
Sweeney’s order and the district’s plan for an emergency motion are the latest developments in a lawsuit focused on 19 books that are primarily by or about LGBTQ people, people of color, or both. They touch on topics ranging from same-sex relationships to racism and police violence. The books include titles such as “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, and “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas.
The case began in December, when the American Civil Liberties Union sued the 2,600-student district after the school board voted to remove the 19 books from school libraries last fall. The plaintiffs in the case include two students, a chapter of the NAACP, and the Authors Guild, a professional organization for writers.
In January, a middle school administrator who was fired by the Elizabeth district after calling the plan to remove school library books racist filed a civil rights complaint against the district.
In her latest order requiring the return of the 19 books, Sweeney dismissed several of the district’s arguments for not returning the books, including that it would face “irreparable harm” if it was forced to do so.
Instead, she holds that the plaintiffs face harm if the books are not put back on school library shelves, writing, “As the Court previously held, ‘[t]he loss of First Amendment freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.‘”
Sweeney also cast doubt on the district’s arguments that school members didn’t vote to remove the books because of partisan or political motives. In fact, she cited examples where board members explicitly mentioned their conservative politics in discussing the book removals.
For example, she noted that Heather Booth, who resigned from the board in January, said in an email last year to Superintendent Dan Snowberger: “It’s equally important to remember that our commitment to conservative values was a key aspect of our campaign.”
If the district’s emergency motion for a stay is unsuccessful and the books must be returned on Saturday, it’s not clear how that will happen. That’s because the district discarded the original copies of the books last fall after the school district vote.
The district has since received two separate donations of the removed books. The first from Greg Lopez, a former Republican member of Congress, came with conditions that limit access to plaintiffs in the case. That donation appeared to be part of a legal strategy that allowed the district to argue that it wasn’t violating the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights as the lawsuit claimed, since the books were available to them.
The second book donation came last week from a law firm — Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell — that’s working with the ACLU on the lawsuit. In a meeting on March 28, the school board rejected the gift, with one exception.
The board voted to keep the book “#Pride: Championing LGBTQ Rights,” but not to return it to library shelves. Instead, they said it would remain in Snowberger’s possession.
In her ruling, Sweeney critiqued the district for not stating in earlier court filings that it had destroyed the original set of banned books or that it had received a donated set of books that could only be read by a small group of people.
She also called out the district for rejecting the second donation from the law firm.
“The District’s decision to reject the donation and thus manufacture an injury is its own doing and will not create an irreparable harm,” she wrote.
Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
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