What Is Book Banning, and Is It Unconstitutional?

You have probably heard about book banning but may wonder exactly what it involves. You’re not alone. Even experts on the topic and those who feel strongly about the issue have different views about when a book has been banned from a school or library.

In this article, we discuss book bans and the First Amendment. We answer commonly asked questions, such as "What is book banning?" and "Is book banning unconstitutional?" We also look at how the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on cases related to book bans and how some data show that it's a phenomenon on the rise.

What is book banning?

There is no singular definition of what constitutes book banning, either under the law or in how people or organizations may describe the status of a particular book.

For the purposes of this article, we define a book “ban” as anytime a book has been made unavailable in its entirety by someone — at least one school, library, bookstore, etc. — other than the author. This includes cases of prior restraint, where a government body prevents the publication or distribution of a book, even if temporarily.

This definition also includes situations where private actors, such as private schools, make the book entirely unavailable, even though this will not violate the First Amendment because there is no government action involved.

How else can books be restricted?

Other book restrictions may refer to government or private action that makes it harder to access the book but doesn’t amount to an outright ban, as defined above. This is particularly common in educational settings and may include:

1. Teachers being told they cannot include a certain book in a curriculum based on educational appropriateness.
2. Students below a certain age or grade being told they cannot check the book out of the school library.
3. Requiring parental permission for some or all students to read the book.

Both book bans, as defined above, and other restrictions often occur because of parents or community members challenging a book. The act of challenging a book is not the same as banning, removing or restricting access to the book, even if it ultimately results in an access restriction or removal. In fact, a person challenging a book is exercising their First Amendment rights of free speech and petition by requesting government action.

Is removing or restricting access to books unconstitutional?

It depends. Removing a book from a public school curriculum or library or restricting access for some students may violate the First Amendment rights of students and others who have a right to receive information and ideas contained in those books.

However, First Amendment protections only apply when these actions are taken by public school or other government officials. And these actions only violate the First Amendment if a government official removes a book or restricts access to it because they dislike the ideas or disagree with the viewpoints contained in that book. This is known as “viewpoint discrimination.”

Viewpoint discrimination occurs when government officials have targeted speech or speakers for special unfavorable treatment based on the messages involved. When government officials engage in viewpoint discrimination, they violate the First Amendment.

RELATED: 15 of the Most Famous ‘Banned’ Books in US History

However, not all book removals and restrictions by government officials violate the First Amendment. Library officials and school decision-makers — ranging from teachers to administrators to elected officials to special review committees appointed by the school board — can remove or restrict access to a book if it is “pervasively vulgar” or “educationally unsuitable.”

Most book access controversies arise in the context of public schools. Some school decision-makers advocating book removals contend, among other things, that certain books are too frank or candid in discussing topics such as LGBTQ+ themes, sexuality, violence, drug use or witchcraft. They also assert that books with topics such as race, gender and sexual orientation are too advanced for school-aged children and therefore inappropriate for a school curriculum or library.

There’s disagreement about when removing or otherwise restricting access to a book in a school setting violates the First Amendment and when it does not. The one U.S. Supreme Court ruling on book access in schools was highly divided and has sometimes been applied in conflicting ways.

The U.S. Supreme Court addresses book access in famous case

The Supreme Court addressed the issue of student access to books in a public school library in Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico (1982).

In 1975, the school board in the Long Island, New York, community of Island Trees issued an “unofficial direction” that 10 books should be removed entirely from the libraries of a local public high school and junior high school; the school board pushed to remove an 11th book from a 12th grade literature course curriculum.

The board described the books as “anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Sem[i]tic, and just plain filthy.”

The 11 books were:

1. “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut
2. “The Naked Ape” by Desmond Morris
3. “Down These Mean Streets” by Piri Thomas
4. “The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers” edited by Langston Hughes
5. “Go Ask Alice” by Anonymous
6. “Laughing Boy” by Oliver La Farge
7. “Black Boy” by Richard Wright
8. “A Hero Ain’t Nothing but a Sandwich” by Alice Childress
9. “Soul on Ice” by Eldridge Cleaver
10. “A Reader for Writers” edited by Jerome Archer (which was in the middle school library only)
11. “The Fixer" by Bernard Malamud (which was in the curriculum of a 12th grade literature course)

The school board appointed a book-review committee, which:

• Recommended that two of the books (“The Naked Ape” and “Down These Mean Streets”) be removed.
• Recommended that five of the books (“The Fixer,” “Laughing Boy,” “Black Boy,” “Go Ask Alice” and “Best Short Stories by Negro Writers) could remain in schools without limitation.
• Could not agree on two books (“Soul on Ice” and “A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich”).
• Took no position on “A Reader for Writers.”
• Said “Slaughterhouse-Five” could be made available only to those students who had parental permission.

The school board, without giving any specific reason, rejected the committee’s recommendations, saying that “Laughing Boy” was the only book that should be returned to the school without restriction and that "Black Boy" should be made available when a student had parental permission.

RELATED: Is Obscenity Protected by the First Amendment?

Four high school students and one junior high school student sued, contending that their First Amendment rights were violated. The case eventually made it to the Supreme Court.

RELATED: How a 40-Year-Old Supreme Court Ruling May Quash the Book Banning Wave

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the students, saying that school and other government officials cannot remove or restrict access to books because they disagree with the viewpoint they contain. In other words, under the First Amendment, you cannot silence ideas contained in books simply because you don’t like them.

However, the court did acknowledge that school officials could remove books or restrict access to certain students if they were “pervasively vulgar” or “educationally unsuitable.” This means that book review committees must ensure that they are focusing on whether the materials are suitable for specific age groups, not whether they agree or disagree with the ideas or viewpoints in the books.

One thing to note about this case is that it was a “plurality” decision, meaning most of the justices ruled in favor of the students, but no single majority could agree on the reason. This has proved problematic, with some First Amendment experts noting the nonmajority decision may be the reason this precedent “has mostly been ignored.”

Restricting or removing access to books continues to be a widespread practice

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom reports that during 2024, there were challenges to 2,452 individual book titles, although these likely haven’t all resulted in book removals or even restrictions. This is down from 4,240 individual titles challenged in 2023.

However, PEN America reports that attempts to restrict access to books and removals of books have increased in recent years.

A 2024 PEN report cites more than 10,000 instances in U.S. public school classrooms and libraries in the 2023-2024 school year where books have either been fully removed or where access has been restricted to students of a certain age or grade level or based on parental permission. This is up from 3,362 books in the 2022-2023 school year.

A librarian arranges a display of banned books during Banned Books Week at a New York Public Library branch in 2022.

PEN America is one of several groups that filed a lawsuit challenging the removal of or restriction of access to numerous books from several public schools in Escambia County, Florida. The lawsuit claims that there is a concerted and consistent effort to remove books from public school libraries in the school district or restrict access to those books because school officials don’t like the political or ideological themes in the books — which would amount to viewpoint discrimination and violate the First Amendment.

Escambia County moved to dismiss the lawsuit because the groups suing couldn’t show that they had suffered any direct injury resulting from the books’ removal and because the decision to remove or restrict access to a book is “government speech” that does not violate the First Amendment. A federal district court judge denied this motion to dismiss, and in October 2024, those suing amended the lawsuit to bring new allegations that the county had set no timeline to review the books and return them to shelves and asked that the court force the county to move more rapidly. The case is still pending as of April 2025.

Challenges to books are an exercise of the First Amendment rights to speech and petition. Still, efforts to remove or restrict access to books, and the fact that government bodies sometimes take immediate action without formal review processes, are cause for alarm among First Amendment advocates, educators and others — and the reason that the fight over access to books and information is the subject of frequent advocacy, conversation and headlines.

This article was updated on May 8, 2025, with up-to-date information about book banning and how it appears in the U.S. It may be updated with future developments. 

This article is written with contributions from David L. Hudson, Jr., a First Amendment fellow with Freedom Forum, and Kevin Goldberg, a vice president and First Amendment expert at Freedom Forum.