Tracking Book Bans and Censorship Legislation in the States

FTLF monitors and analyzes legislation in all 50 states. In 2024 and 2025, more than 130 bills have been introduced that threaten the availability of books in schools, criminalize library staff, or require state oversight of curriculum and reading materials.

Key Trends:

• Criminalizing Librarians – In states like Texas and Indiana, proposed laws would penalize librarians for distributing content deemed “harmful to minors”—often defined so vaguely as to apply to any book mentioning gender or sexuality.
• Book Rating Systems – Bills in multiple states mandate “rating systems” similar to movie classifications, opening the door for mass censorship.
• Mandatory Content Review – Some state laws now allow any one parent to trigger book removals from entire districts with no due process.

According to the First Amendment Encyclopedia at Middle Tennessee State University, these laws are legally dubious and conflict with decades of Supreme Court precedent that protects student access to ideas.

We fight these laws in legislatures, courtrooms, and communities.

At FTLF, we refuse to stand by while access to information is stripped away. We believe:

📚 Books are bridges, not battlegrounds—they open minds, foster empathy, and connect us across differences.
🧠 Education must nurture critical thinking and curiosity, not fear or censorship.
🌎 Every student deserves access to diverse voices, histories, and identities that reflect their reality and expand their understanding.
🏛️ Public libraries and public schools are sacred spaces in a democracy—defunding or restricting them weakens our communities.
🗽 Intellectual freedom isn’t just a value—it’s a constitutional right we must actively defend..
👥 Every person deserves access to stories, facts, and perspectives that reflect the full spectrum of the human experience.