Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin leads 20-state coalition in amicus brief supporting Iowa library law

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin is leading a coalition of 20 other states in filing a friend of the court brief supporting an Iowa law.

The law prohibits books describing sex acts from school libraries. Griffin said the brief is in response to the Iowa law being challenged on First Amendment grounds.

Griffin explained that the issue is not a free speech matter, as the law involves making editorial decisions, which are considered “government speech” and therefore fall outside the scope of the First Amendment.

Griffin spoke about the issue of compelling libraries to act.

“Apart from the government-speech doctrine, the free-speech rights enshrined in the First Amendment do not provide a right to compel information at taxpayers’ expense,” the attorney general said. “Schools can’t be compelled to provide certain materials, and the First Amendment does not compel public-school libraries to stock library shelves with graphic depictions of sex acts that elementary students can access without their parents’ knowledge or consent.”

Griffin thanked Solicitor General Autumn Hamit Patterson, Deputy Solicitor General Noah Watson, and Senior Assistant Solicitor General Asher Steinberg for their work on the brief.