Overview
- The refusal to hear Llano County residents’ appeal leaves 17 disputed titles off local shelves and cements the en banc 5th Circuit ruling across Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
- The 2025 appeals court decision, written by Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan in a 10–7 split, found patrons cannot invoke a First Amendment right to receive information to challenge removals.
- A federal judge had ordered some books restored in 2023 before the appellate reversal, which reframed library curation as discretionary government expression.
- The challenged titles include In the Night Kitchen, It’s Perfectly Normal, Being Jazz, Caste, and juvenile humor books such as Larry the Farting Leprechaun.
- PEN America and the American Library Association condemned the outcome, warning it could encourage more removals during a period of rising book bans documented nationwide.