First — the good news: I am 100% certain the ACLU will be able to win — if/when it files a case against this small-minded attempt at the repression of US history.
The ACLU will win all the way through the United States Supreme Court, and have this local Tennessee law invalidated, as both impermissibly vague — and as contrary to nearly 100 years of clear Supreme Court precedent.
These cases say the work as a whole must be considered, even before taking only the least restrictive means of addressing a compelling state interest. See, Island Trees, et al., 457 U.S. 853 — decided 1982. None of that has happened in Knoxville, Tennessee. Obviously.
And, moreover, all of this would be unthinkable, prior to the “time of Tangerine” — looking back, given Supreme Court black letter law — of at least 60 years’ standing:
…Roots: The Saga of an American Family, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alex Haley that helped shape public understanding of slavery and inspired generations of Americans to trace their ancestry, has been banned from library shelves in Knox County Schools under Tennessee’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act….
“Roots” was among the first widely read works of fiction to offer a detailed account of the Middle Passage, the horrific transatlantic journey to America endured by enslaved Africans between the 16th and 19th centuries….
Roots had recently been elevated to the district’s review committee for consideration over a passage in the novel’s 84th chapter, which it determined was not “age appropriate” under Tennessee law. “Broader themes or historical significance of a work as a whole is not a consideration under the law,” Harrington added. [Then this Tennessee law plainly violates the Supreme Court’s cases on the First Amendment; Chapter 84 narrates the forcible rape and beating of an enslaved woman — by a white domestic terrorist / plantation owner.]
The Knoxville News Sentinel reported that the KCS book-banning committee had previously reviewed an excerpt from Roots and did not recommend banning it. KCS did not answer questions… on what new concerns had been raised.
The decision means the material can still be taught in classes; it just cannot be available on library shelves….
This is why no preznit should be allowed to endlessly lie — about the uglier aspects of our shared US history. Before long, the acolytes of such a demagogue will seek to erase that uglier history entirely, from written records.
That is exactly what hard right / faux-Xtian Tennessee legislators are vainly attempting here. Damnation. It will not stand, in any event.
नमस्ते
Powerline Lies... 