Law allowing criminal charges for librarians over ‘harmful’ materials blocked

Nate Coulter, executive director of the Central Arkansas Library System (Katie Adkins/AP, File)

Arkansas is temporarily blocked from enforcing a law that would have allowed criminal charges against librarians and booksellers for providing “harmful” materials to minors, a federal judge has ruled.

US district judge Timothy L Brooks issued a preliminary injunction against the law, which also would have created a new process to challenge library materials and request that they be relocated to areas not accessible by kids.