CEO of Austin-based BookPeople ‘ecstatic’ over decision blocking law that restricts library books

The CEO of BookPeople said she is “ecstatic” the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday blocked a Texas law that sought to restrict which books are available in school libraries.

“I’m so, so happy that they upheld the lower court’s ruling and that they understood and agreed with the unconstitutionality of the law as written,” Charley Rejsek said.

House Bill 900 was set to take effect in September, but the decades-old Austin business and a coalition of other groups filed a lawsuit challenging it.

The legislation bans “sexually explicit” books in school libraries and requires students to get consent from a parent or guardian to check out books deemed “sexually relevant.” The law also requires vendors to rate any books they sell to school districts based on their sexual content and references.

Rejsek said independent booksellers like BookPeople do not have the resources to comply with the law.

“There was just really no clear path forward for us to be able to comply with the law,” she said. “It was written in a way where we would be required to divert resources away from our regular business operations so much so that if we were to have tried to comply, it could have put us out of business.”

BookPeople has sold materials to dozens of Central Texas school districts for years.

“We had to sign on to this lawsuit because I couldn’t imagine a 53-year-old business who is a part of our community not being able to work with public schools in the future,” she said.

Other plaintiffs include Blue Willow Books in Houston, the American Booksellers Association and the Association of American Publishers.

A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit – one of the most conservative federal appeals courts in the country – agreed with a lower court ruling that found the law violated book vendors’ First Amendment rights and would also be a “prohibitively expensive burden.”

“Plaintiffs have an interest in selling books without being coerced to speak the State’s preferred message—the ratings,” Judge Don Willett wrote in Wednesday’s ruling.

State Rep. Jared Patterson, a Republican from Frisco who authored the bill, criticized the ruling.

“I am disappointed by this decision in part, as book vendors have an obligation to be aware of the content they are distributing, especially if that content is sexually explicit into the hands of school children,” he said in a statement.

But he said he was grateful the ruling did not overturn a portion of HB 900 that establishes statewide library standards. The standards, which the Texas State Board of Education approved last month, ban sexually explicit materials.

Still Patterson has called on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. But Rejsek said she is hopeful the justices would side with book vendors because a federal judge and a federal appeals court did.

“I do think both of the courts’ opinions clearly state why this is unconstitutional and also the burden placed upon vendors and how unrealistic it is,” she said.

Rejsek said she planned to celebrate this legal win.

“I need time to let it sink,” she said, “but of course we will be celebrating, definitely.”

This story was produced as part of the Austin Monitor’s reporting partnership with KUT. This story has been changed since publication to clarify the impact of the ruling.

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