Judge blocks Arkansas law criminalizing libraries for providing allegedly obscene books to minors

A federal judge on Saturday temporarily blocked portions of an Arkansas law that would make it a crime for librarians and bookstores to provide minors with materials deemed “harmful” to them. The law, signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in March, would have held librarians and book vendors criminally liable for knowingly making available to minors material that would appeal “to a prurient interest in sex.” Under the law, the material would also have to lack “serious literary, scientific, medical, artistic, or political value” and be “patently offensive” under community standards. The law, known as Act 372, would have taken effect Tuesday but will now remain blocked while the case plays out.