BOISE, Idaho – A coalition of private schools, churches and Idaho residents has filed a lawsuit in federal court, challenging a new law that restricts access to materials in Idaho libraries and schools.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday and names as plaintiffs Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador and the prosecutors in Ada and Blaine County.
The group calls the law “an unprecedented attempt by the government to control speech and ideas in private institutions.”
Idaho lawmakers passed HB 710 last session, which restricts libraries and schools from possessing “harmful” materials that could be accessed by kids.
Libraries and schools can be held financially responsible for having such materials.
This lawsuit says it’s a violation of First Amendment rights of schools and libraries and “infringes on the fundamental liberty interest of parents who choose private entities over State-controlled public schools and libraries for the educational development of their minor children.”
Plaintiffs say that carrying important works like Michelangelo’s “David” and even the Bible could put libraries and schools at risk someone finds the material offensive.
“The Constitution does not permit the State to engage in content-based censorship to mollify a community’s most sensitive and censorious members,” the lawsuit states.
Plaintiffs also believe the law violates people’s Fourteenth Amendment which says states can not deprive anyone “life, liberty or property.”
The coalition is made up of several entities, including the Northwest Association of Independent Schools, which operates 109 private schools across the Northwest.
The Idaho Family Policy Center has already responded to the lawsuit in a press release sent Thursday afternoon.
It says, in part, that the new law is “common sense” and that “the schools, churches, and parents who filed the legal challenge today should be embarrassed.”
No dates have yet been set for hearings in the case.
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