1984. The Lorax. The Magic Fish. The Handmaid’s Tale. Shopgirl. Harry Potter. Maybe you’ve read some of these books or maybe you’ve never heard of them. They all have one thing in common; they’re banned. In today’s shifting political landscape, banned books have been used as a tool to silence voices and perspectives, but how exactly does this happen? How can a book be banned from public libraries and schools, removed from shelves? Most book bans begin with formal challenges – requests filed by parents, advocacy groups, or organizations – which are then debated in courtrooms or reviewed by committees. These battles over books are long and tiresome, involving parents, lawyers, school boards, and state governments. Over time, repeated challenges to books voicing certain perspectives create a chilling fog of silence over those who need to be heard.
“What started in Llano with pearl-clutching over Freddie the Farting Snowman has now resulted in a free-for-all pass for unencumbered suppression and removal of any and all books from public libraries. That is the logical endpoint for censorship, which is why it must be confronted loudly and unequivocally,” said Liela Little, who served as the lead plaintiff during a court case titled Little v. Llano, where a group of residents in the county objected to the removal of books from the library that touched upon sex, race, and gender themes. The lower federal court of Llano County, Texas ruled that the removal of the books was not unconstitutional and therefore allowed. However, the residents pushed for the case to be considered by the Supreme Court, who unfortunately refused to hear the case.
Because the Supreme Court chose not to consider the case, it set a dangerous precedent for banning books in the future. Sam Helmick, president of the American Library Association, said the Supreme Court’s decision not to consider the case “threatens to transform government libraries into centers for indoctrination instead of protecting them as centers of open inquiry, undermining the First Amendment right to read unfettered by viewpoint-based censorship.” As Helmick explains, the refusal of the Supreme Court to hear the case implies that in the future, banning books, in cases like this, could go unchallenged in federal courts, making it easier to remove books and inhibit free speech. This can open the floodgates for more book bans if people think that these bans will not be challenged.
An interview with an AskNYPL public service representative who preferred to remain anonymous highlights how book bans affect the New York Public Library (NYPL) and reaffirms its central mission of keeping books on the shelves. The representative explains that “NYPL gets requests to remove books from shelves that they find objectionable. It’s rare that they actually do get banned since the library serves a very diverse population.” People understand that books are necessary to express a wide range of viewpoints, and the NYPL supports this.
The representative elaborates that “we won’t allow one person’s opinion to block other people’s opinions. We don’t take books off the shelves. Our library doesn’t believe that censorship is a good idea or something fundamental to human values, finding it important to make that known, and NYPL’s position is that no book should be kept out of libraries.” The library remains firm in its stance against book bans, even with the recent push for restrictions across the country.
In New York, state leaders have publicly defended intellectual freedom, and New York City funds the NYPL as a core civic institution. That political climate shapes outcomes. The NYPL keeps contested titles on its shelves and frames access to information as a public right, not a partisan issue. While libraries in states such as Florida or Texas have faced removals after local pressure, New York’s legal and political support gives the NYPL stronger ground to protect its catalog and resist coordinated bans.
In the United States, books cannot be completely banned, but in public institutions like public schools, a book can be restricted or removed. The most common way a book gets banned in public schools is through challenges. An individual or a group of people can file a challenge to a book within the education system. Then, a committee review board will decide based on a set of criteria whether or not the book should be removed from the curriculum and the school library. The criteria usually includes things such as sexual content, offensive language, religious viewpoint, or seemingly being unsuited to the age group.
Another court case in April 2025 that touched upon this issue was Roe v. Rutherford County Board of Education. The verdict was the restriction or banning of over 145 books in the library system, based on criteria decided by individuals with ties to Moms for Liberty, a far-right group known for advocating for conservative parental rights. These books were banned for having stories about LGBTQ+ characters and discussions about race and gender, as well as for discussing other topics viewed by the board as unsuitable for school settings.
Plaintiff Rachel Roe, a rising freshman who participated in the lawsuit under a pseudonym, explained, “I noticed that many of the removed books involve stories about LGBTQ characters or tell stories about racism or the experiences of non-white authors growing up in America. I think it is wrong to remove these books because I think that books in a library should represent everybody.” These books are crucial to communities and libraries, and banning them is a violation of the First Amendment, negatively impacting a community. When children and teens do not feel represented by the books around them, this can lead to feelings of isolation or not belonging. It is crucial that all feel supported and uplifted by the media around them, and restricting books, because they have a different viewpoint or perspective, can negatively impact students.
A very different viewpoint comes from the group Moms for Liberty, who advocates for book bans in schools. From their point of view, they are protecting the people. According to the mission statement from their website, “We are dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.” For many, their work reaches beyond banning books. It goes as far as banning viewpoints.
It’s critical that everyone has access to these different viewpoints, particularly in bookstores. Melissa, a manager at Barnes and Noble on 5th Avenue and 46th Street in Manhattan, elaborated that banned books are important because “you don’t know what you don’t know, and reading banned books help you to learn and to understand more.” Learning about different viewpoints and perspectives can help someone learn and interact with the world around them and grow their own ideas and opinions. The most important things to do to combat book bans are to read more books, educate yourself on book bans, and protest against them where the decisions are made, like at the courthouse. When asked if people ever request that books be removed from the store, Melissa replied, “people don’t do that. That’s not how it works, and stores don’t make decisions. The state decides what books get banned, not companies.” This further reinforces just how important it is to take action against book bans in your communities, to appeal to the state governments that make the decisions.
The question of book bans cannot be brought up without also bringing up the First Amendment. In the Constitution, the First Amendment is defined as follows: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” This means that the government is not allowed to make any laws restricting freedom of speech.
Nadine Strossen, a legal expert in the First Amendment and former president of the ACLU, wrote in her book Hate: Why We Should Resist it With Free Speech, Not Censorship, that “more speech can be the best way to reach out to individuals, changing what they think and not merely what they do.” She emphasizes that the way to combat hate speech is not more censorship, but to create spaces that facilitate meaningful discussions, not ban those discussions completely. Banning books takes away perspectives on sometimes uncomfortable topics that people do not want to face, creating a circle of silence on important topics such as race and gender.
Chiara Capurso ’28, a student at the Bronx High School of Science, shares her views on book bans and what people can do to combat them. Capurso said, “I think it’s really important to be able to learn about different perspectives and voices on a topic, and it helps me understand all the different sides and get a better understanding of the topic.” When asked if schools and libraries should ban any books, she said she “doesn’t think books should be banned, especially if teachers and librarians are there to guide students through reading a more difficult book or topic. All it really does is limit the perspectives and information accessible to me and other kids.”
As debates over book bans remain rampant, one truth remains clear: censorship does not protect society from harmful ideas. Instead, it shields people from understanding them, and in doing so, it narrows the very freedom that libraries, schools, and the First Amendment were designed to protect.
“[I don’t] think books should be banned, especially if teachers and librarians are there to guide students through reading a more difficult book or topic. All it really does is limit the perspectives and information accessible to me and other kids,” said Chiara Capurso ’28.