Banning books is censorship. Full Stop!

Banning books is a violation of First Amendment rights!

Book bans violate the First Amendment in the Constitution because they deprive children or students of the right to receive information and ideas,” explained David L. Hudson Jr., a professor at Belmont University College of Law and a First Amendment law expert.

David L. Hudson, Jr., an Assistant Professor of Law, teaches Legal Information and Communication at Belmont. He is the author, co-author, or co-editor of more than 40 books. For much of his career, he has worked on First Amendment issues.

An opinion echo published in The Advocate a Baton Rouge, Louisiana newspaper.

The League of Women Voters of Louisiana and St. Tammany is a nonpartisan, volunteer political advocacy organization committed to keeping our citizens informed. We do not support political candidates but do take policy positions regarding good government and individuals’ rights. We are devoted to voting rights for all.

We wish to notify you of our support for the St. Tammany Parish Library System. Our state convention, held March 2023, approved the initiation of a study regarding book banning and/or censorship.

We appreciate our librarians' selection of books that reflect the range of community members such as women, Blacks, Native Americans, LGBTQ+ community and many more, thereby acknowledging that libraries are for everyone. We are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in the use of taxpayer money to purchase books for all members of our community as an expression of individual rights and a commitment to right to know.

We appreciate the move by our library system issuing library cards that acknowledge the right of parents to decide what their children should read, and the responsibility of parents to monitor their children’s reading while not trampling on the rights of other parents.

We will be wholeheartedly supporting the renewal of the efforts to continue to support the outstanding library system of St. Tammany Parish.

We urge you to oppose the efforts here and in our state Legislature to enact government control of the right to read. This goes against our values of freedom and democracy.

Devoe Allen, president
Bonnie Schmidt, vice president
League of Women Voters of St. Tammany
Slidell Louisiana