The Education Committee of the Texas Senate is meeting tomorrow (Wednesday, September 18) to discuss the interim charges given to them by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. One of those interim charges is to “monitor the implementation of legislation” addressed by the committee and to “make recommendations for any legislation needed to improve, enhance, or complete implementation of those laws passed in the 88th Legislature.” Specifically, Patrick asked for help monitoring “oversight of public school library procurement and content policies.”

That means HB 900, the anti-book “READER Act” designed to remove books en masse from Texas schools. Half of the law has been enjoined as likely unconstitutional by the extremely conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Nonetheless, the remaining parts of the law have wreaked havoc on education on the state, and we at Texas Freedom to Read Project intend to let the members of the committee know exactly how.

Blasphemy. Vulgar and racist language. Radical political ideology. Radically pro-abortion. Violence including self-harm and suicidal ideations. Anti-religious. Profanity. Rape. Gore. Alcohol use by minors. Illegal drug use. Controversial religious commentary. 

When objectors specify ideology they oppose, in addition to the sexually explicit content they describe, how is one to know whether they oppose the book based on the sexually descriptive content, or the ideas it contains? This distinction matters. In Island Trees v. Pico the Supreme Court ruled that the Island Trees School Board did *not* have the authority to remove books it characterized as “anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, and just plain filthy.”