Judge blocks Texas law mandating book stores rate titles for sexual content

AUSTIN, Texas — A federal judge has permanently blocked the State of Texas from enforcing a law that restricts the content of school library books.

Passed and signed into law in 2023, House Bill 900 - or the "Reader Act" - aimed to prevent children from accessing certain materials in public school libraries and prohibited vendors from selling material rated “sexually explicit” to schools. In a ruling on Wednesday, a federal judge in Waco said the law is unconstitutional.

House Bill 900 banned public school libraries from acquiring explicit books and other materials. Book vendors would have had to assign ratings to books based on depictions or references to sex. Books that are rated “sexually explicit” will be removed from shelves. Books that reference sex but are part of a requir