More books have been pulled from Texas public school libraries since 2023 than from schools in any other state. Two laws drive the current wave of books banned in Texas: the 2023 READER Act (House Bill 900) and Senate Bill 13, passed in 2025. Together they define what counts as restricted content, require districts to yank any challenged title off the shelf while a review runs, and give local school boards the final word on removal. A 2025 federal appeals ruling added that library collection choices are government speech, meaning officials can take books out for almost any reason without a viable First Amendment lawsuit stopping them. A separate criminal law that took effect the same year put teachers and librarians personally at risk if they hand a student material the state classifies as harmful.
What Counts as a Restricted Book
Texas sorts restricted library content into two tiers, and the consequences are very different.
Sexually explicit material depicts sexual conduct in a way that is “patently offensive” under community standards. The Education Code borrows those terms from Penal Code Sections 43.25 and 43.21.1Texas Public Law. Texas Education Code Section 33.021 – Library Standards Any book that falls into this category must be removed from the school library entirely. There is no parental consent workaround.
The school library standard is broader than the criminal obscenity standard most people have in mind. Under Penal Code Section 43.21, material is only legally obscene if it also “lacks serious literary, artistic, political, and scientific value” taken as a whole.2State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 43.21 – Definitions The library definition drops that requirement. A novel with recognized literary merit can still be classified as sexually explicit for school purposes if its depictions of sexual conduct are patently offensive, which is why award-winning books by writers like Toni Morrison end up on removal lists next to material no one would defend on literary grounds.
Sexually relevant material contains descriptions of sexual conduct but does not cross the patently offensive line. These books stay in the library, but a student needs written parental consent to check one out or use it outside the library.3State of Texas. Texas Code Education Code 35.005 – Parental Consent Required for Use of Certain Library Materials
How a Book Gets Pulled
Senate Bill 13 set up a uniform challenge process every Texas school district now follows. A parent, a district employee, or any resident of the district can file a written challenge against any title in the catalog using a standardized form the Texas Education Agency published and every district has to post on its website.4Texas Education Agency. Guidance Document for SB 13 (89th Texas Legislature)
Once the district receives the challenge, a specific clock starts:
- The challenged book is pulled from student access as soon as the challenge comes in. Students cannot check it out or use it while the review is pending.
- If the district has a local school library advisory council, the challenge goes to the council within five business days. Parents can force the creation of such a council by petition: 50 parent signatures, or signatures from parents of 10 percent of enrolled students, whichever is fewer.
- The council has 90 calendar days to review the material and submit a written recommendation to the school board.
- The board must vote at its first open meeting after the 90-day window closes or after the council issues its recommendation, whichever comes first. If no council exists, the board still votes at the first open meeting after day 90.
If the board votes to keep the book, a two-year cooling-off period applies and no one can challenge the same title again during that stretch. If the challenger disagrees with the decision, they can appeal through the district’s grievance process, and the board must take up the appeal at its next open meeting.5Texas Education Agency. Senate Bill 13 Requirements Related to School Library Materials
The practical effect matters more than the paperwork. A single challenge pulls a book from circulation for at least three months. Across a large district fielding dozens or hundreds of challenges, students lose access to a steady rotation of titles even when the board eventually votes to keep them.
Which Books Get Challenged Most
Challenges in Texas overwhelmingly target books dealing with sexual orientation, gender identity, and racial trauma. Graphic novels and memoirs depicting LGBTQ+ experiences draw the highest volume. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe has been the single most challenged title across Texas districts, largely for its visual depictions of sexual and gender exploration. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson and Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison show up repeatedly for similar reasons. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is frequently challenged, with objections typically focused on its scenes of sexual abuse and childhood trauma rather than its broader themes.
What makes Texas distinctive is not just how many challenges get filed but how each one lands. A parent in most states can file a challenge and hope the board agrees. A parent in Texas files a challenge and knows the book disappears from student access the same week, with no guarantee it returns for at least 90 days. That procedural reality makes every challenge consequential in a way it would not be elsewhere.
Why Vendor Ratings Never Became the Filter
The READER Act was built around a different idea: push the screening work onto commercial vendors. Every vendor selling to Texas public schools would have to rate each book as sexually explicit, sexually relevant, or neither before completing the sale. Books rated sexually explicit could not be sold to any district, and vendors would have to recall copies already in schools.6Texas Legislature Online. Texas House Bill 900 – Restricting Explicit and Adult-Designated Educational Resources Act Vendors that refused to submit ratings would land on a noncompliance list, and no district could buy from them.7State of Texas. Texas Code Education Code 35.003 – Agency Review
The vendor piece never took effect. In Book People, Inc. v. Wong, a group of booksellers, publishers, and authors sued, and the Fifth Circuit found the rating requirement was compelled speech in violation of the First Amendment. The court rejected the state’s position that ratings were just a government administrative function, holding that deciding whether a book is sexually explicit requires subjective judgment about community standards and multiple competing factors, not the kind of factual, uncontroversial disclosure the government can compel.8Justia. Book People, Incorporated v. Wong A federal judge later made the injunction permanent.9United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Book People, Incorporated v. Martha Wong
Books still reach Texas school libraries through ordinary purchasing. The job of identifying restricted content falls on districts, advisory councils, and the challenge process. The READER Act’s parental consent requirements for sexually relevant material remain in force.
Why Removal Lawsuits Now Fail
Even as the vendor system lost in court, a separate 2025 Fifth Circuit decision made it dramatically harder to challenge removals once they happen. In Little v. Llano County, patrons of a public library sued over the county’s decision to pull 17 books. The Fifth Circuit held that a library’s choice about which books to keep or remove is government speech and therefore not subject to First Amendment review at all.10Justia. Little v. Llano County, No. 23-50224
The court compared library collection decisions to a museum choosing which paintings to hang or a newspaper choosing which editorials to run. Under that reasoning, patrons cannot invoke the First Amendment to challenge a removal, even one driven by disagreement with a book’s viewpoint.11United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Little v. Llano County
Little explicitly overruled Campbell v. St. Tammany Parish School Board, a 1995 Fifth Circuit case that had held removing books from school libraries could violate the First Amendment. That precedent had been the strongest legal argument against politically motivated removals in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. With Campbell gone, officials in those three states can now take books off library shelves for essentially any reason, including content disagreement, without facing a viable federal lawsuit.
Criminal Exposure for Teachers and Librarians
Senate Bill 412, which took effect on September 1, 2025, amended Section 43.24 of the Penal Code, which governs distributing material harmful to minors. The underlying offense already carried up to 10 years in prison. What changed is who can be prosecuted. The amendment stripped out the affirmative defense that previously let teachers and librarians argue the material was provided for a scientific, educational, or governmental purpose. Only law enforcement officers and judges can still raise that defense.
Whether a book has recognized literary or educational merit no longer matters to the criminal analysis. A teacher who assigns a novel containing graphic content, or a librarian who misses a title that gets later classified as harmful to minors, can in theory face prosecution. The chilling effect is intentional, and districts have responded by pulling books preemptively rather than waiting for formal challenges.
Charter Schools Follow the Same Rules
Open-enrollment charter schools are not exempt. The READER Act expressly covers charter schools in its vendor rating framework, recall provisions, and parental consent requirements,12Texas Legislature Online. Bill Analysis C.S.H.B. 900 and charter schools must follow the SB 13 challenge procedures and the collection standards set by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. The READER Act does grant districts, charter schools, and school personnel immunity from liability if a vendor fails to properly rate a book that ends up on a shelf.6Texas Legislature Online. Texas House Bill 900 – Restricting Explicit and Adult-Designated Educational Resources Act That immunity does not reach the separate criminal exposure SB 412 created for distributing harmful material to minors.