Taylor Brorbym Salt Lake City, Utah

The following North Dakota authors, poets, and essayists join me in strong opposition to HB 1205, SB 2123, and SB 2360: Byron L. Dorgan, Heid E. Erdrich, Louise Erdrich, Melanie Hoffert, Martin Keller, Chuck Klosterman, Debra Marquart, Kathleen Norris, Jennie Shortridge, Sarah Vogel, Larry Watson, Clay S. Jenkinson, Lonna Whiting, Dr. Michael Yellow Bird.

These bills are unconstitutional, will result in censorship, and violate the freedom of speech for all North Dakotans. They threaten public librarians with criminal charges and imprisonment for simply doing their jobs: providing books and information. Public libraries across the state already adhere to collection development policies that librarians use to shape their collections. Each library includes a variety of materials that reflect the people in their communities.

The current obscenity law in ND Code ensures that pornography is not available to children in libraries, either in physical or digital formats. Libraries are already compelled to employ content filters on the Internet access they provide to patrons in accordance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA.) For these reasons, we share our concern over this dangerous wave of censorship and urge legislators to vote NO on all three of these bills.