Federal Appeals Court Blocks Texas Law on Book Content Rating

Court rules that the law, which required book vendors to rate sexual content in books sold to schools, likely violates the First Amendment.

Federal appeals court blocks Texas law requiring book vendors to rate sexual content in books sold to schools, upholding a lower court's injunction.
The law, known as the READER Act, was challenged by bookstores and national publishing groups who argued it violated their First Amendment rights.
The law required vendors to rate all library material as 'sexually explicit', 'sexually relevant', or 'no rating', with 'sexually explicit' books being removed from school shelves.
The court ruled that the ratings were neither factual nor uncontroversial, and required vendors to undertake a contextual analysis of material, which goes beyond a mere disclosure of factual information.
The court also found that the law would cause irreparable economic harm to the plaintiffs, including the possibility of some bookstores going out of business.