Overview

• The ACLU of South Carolina filed the federal complaint on Oct. 7 on behalf of the state school librarians’ association and three minor students in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.
• The suit challenges Regulation 43-170, which since June 2024 has barred any K–12 materials with "sexual conduct," as well as a March 14 memo from Superintendent Ellen Weaver that forbids 14 concepts in state education materials, including implicit bias and social-emotional learning.
• Plaintiffs allege violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments and argue the regulation is unconstitutionally vague because it does not apply the Supreme Court’s Miller test for obscenity.
• Reported impacts include 22 books removed statewide, classroom libraries curtailed, preemptive title removals and halted purchases by librarians, permission slips for certain books in Beaufort County, and loss of school access to county digital collections in Fort Mill.
• The South Carolina Department of Education said it will vigorously defend the policies as clear and legally sound, while Greenville County Schools said it has not yet been served with the lawsuit.