Two more library bills head to Senate floor
After an emotional early morning committee hearing, the Legislature’s library debate took one more turn Friday.
On a party-line vote, the Senate State Affairs Committee advanced two companion bills focused on “harmful” materials in school and public libraries. The bills were sent to the Senate’s 14th order, where they might be amended on the floor.
The moves came as the Legislature concluded its 11th week. Lawmakers did not wrap up the 2023 session Friday — legislative leaders’ self-imposed target date for adjournment. The Senate will reconvene Monday morning. The House will return Tuesday morning.
The first of the library proposals, Senate Bill 1187, requires libraries to adopt policies “to protect minors from harmful materials,” and calls for citizens’ panels to review materials. Senate Bill 1188 sets up the legal framework for a court to review, and possibly remove, obscene or offensive library materials.
Both bills are necessary, according to their sponsor, because library materials are fundamentally different than they were years ago, and librarians haven’t taken public concerns seriously.
“The libraries can try to stand behind the First Amendment,” said Senate President Pro Tem Chuck Winder, R-Boise.
Librarians said the bills are a dangerous legislative overreach.
If the bills pass, the Meridian Public Library could be forced to rescind all library cards for minors, and only allow children to visit the library with a parent, trustee Jeff Kohler said. “We can’t risk the legal liability otherwise.”
Kohler focused on one section of SB 1188, which sets up the legal framework to seize and destroy harmful materials. “Seize and destroy sounds exactly like book burning to me.”
Idaho Library Association President Lance McGrath called SB 1188 draconian. “It is a sledgehammer being wielded by a gardener in an attempt to smash a mosquito.”
Lynn Laird of Meridian spoke in favor of the bill, citing the controversy surrounding her hometown’s library. Citizens have petitioned to Ada County commissioners to dissolve the Meridian Library District, she said, because they felt they had no other recourse. “The people have really run up against a brick wall in Meridian.”
Committee Democrats pushed back against both bills. Sen. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, said the bills could force librarians to remove materials on LGBTQ+ and racial issues. Sen. James Ruchti, D-Pocatello, accused colleagues of appeasement.
“We have people that just won’t take no for an answer, and this Legislature won’t tell them no,” he said. “Minors are not the problem here. It‘s the adults.”
Both bills are headed to the Senate’s amending order, and Winder said he was open to removing restrictions to college and university librarians. But lawmakers are not obligated to amend bills that are sent to floor for possible amendment. Earlier this week, the Senate took a bill to create the Idaho Launch postsecondary incentives program out of the amending order, without making any changes to it. The Senate passed the unamended bill two days later.
Lawmakers have floated several bills addressing harmful library materials. But no bill has passed both houses.
The House passed a library bill Monday, but it hit a roadblock in the Senate. On Wednesday, Senate State Affairs balked at language in House Bill 314, subjecting libraries to a possible $2,500 civil fine.
The committee also sent HB 314 to the Senate floor for possible amendment, but the Senate hasn’t taken it up.