You’d almost think Illinois singlehandedly defeated the Nazi Axis based on the comments made by progressive politicians and media about the state’s new ban on book bans. Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law this month. For example:
- Pritzker said, “Regimes ban books, not democracies,” adding that Illinois refuses “to let a vitriolic strain of white nationalism” determine “whose stories get told.”
- The Daily Kos began its column with this quote from a German poet, about what it called a “monumental bill”: “Those who burn books will in the end burn people.”
- The New York Times said the signing of Illinois’ new law “may have opened a new front,” quoting a library association person saying, “there was a huge wave of conversation and dialogue about how important it is that we see governors and that we see lawmakers engaged in this conversation.”
In truth, the book ban “ban” is bunk. It’s absurdly written and impossibly vague. It permits delegation of lawmaking to an unelected national association, stripping local control from libraries. It conflates questions of age appropriateness with censorship. It’s a transparent attempt by the leaders of the cancel culture wrap themselves in the flag of free speech.
Under Illinois new law, public libraries will forfeit state grants unless they either (a) adopt the American Library Association’s library bill of rights or, (b) develop a written statement prohibiting the practice of banning books or other materials within the library or library system.
Let’s first consider what the second option above means, because it’s so empty. A library would be in compliance, if it used that option, if it merely has a written statement “prohibiting the practice of banning books.” What on earth does that mean? Maybe a statement saying no banning at all allowed? Nobody would agree with that. Any “statement” to make sense would have to get into the specifics of what can be banned and why, but the new law says nothing about what those specifics should be.
Read on here.
Related: “The fine print of Illinois’ ban on book bans,” “Pritzker signs law stripping libraries that ban books from state funding,” “Bill blocking libraries from state funding if they ban books clears General Assembly”