by Logan Finney, Idaho Reports

Attorney General Raúl Labrador has moved to dismiss a federal lawsuit against the state which seeks to overturn the library materials law that took effect in 2024.

The suit seeks an injunction to prevent the Attorney General and local prosecutors from enforcing the law. Since July, it allows individuals to sue a library if it does not act on a request to move material the requester believes is obscene and harmful to children.

Labrador’s office filed the motion to dismiss on Wednesday, claiming that none of the plaintiffs have demonstrated an actual injury caused by enforcement of the law – only general fears about its possible enforcement.

“To the extent that minors want to receive information, it is no infringement on anyone’s First Amendment right to require them to ask a parent to obtain that information with them,” the filing says.

The motion to dismiss also asserts that the state is acting fully within its rights to regulate content available to children on public library shelves.

“The actions of public libraries and public schools in shelving and un-shelving books—and the State in making determinations about what is appropriate for a school or public library it pays for or organizes—is government speech,” the filing states. “Speech by the government is not subject to any First Amendment scrutiny and the government can choose, based on its own viewpoint, what to say, and when and how to say it.”

The plaintiffs – several publishing companies, authors, and individual Idahoans, as well as the Donnelly Public Library – claim that the law is an unconstitutional limit on free speech.

As a political subdivision of the state, Labrador argues, the library district cannot challenge the constitutionality of a state statute in federal court.

One plaintiff is a Meridian school librarian who objects to being required to move certain titles. The state argues she lacks standing as an individual to challenge the law, because those content decisions are made in the course of her employment at a public school.

“She is instead a government speaker, and to the extent that she makes editorial judgements or curation decisions, those are wholly under the control of the school district and, as a political subdivision of the State, the State of Idaho,” says Labrador’s office.

The state also says that the authors and publishers of the books in question do not have standing to challenge the statute.

“They claim that they have a free speech right to communicate with their audience. Fair enough,” the filing says. “But do they have a constitutional right to force a government entity to buy their books and make them available to their patrons?”

The county prosecutors named as defendants also moved to dismiss the case on similar grounds, claiming no plaintiff had shown that the prosecutors were actually taking action to enforce the state law.

Idaho Reports visited the Donnelly Library in February to discuss the statute and lawsuit. For more coverage, watch Idaho Reports on Friday nights at 8 pm on Idaho Public Television, or on idahoptv.org/idahoreports.

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