Report to RMRT
Judi Moreillon, FTRF Liaison for the RMRT
6 July 2026
Dear RMRT Board and Members,
The following is my Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) report from the June 25, 2026 biannual meeting in Chicago. I have also attached a copy.
Litigation:
FTRF continues to partner with other organizations to defend the First Amendment and the Right to Read through litigation and amicus briefs. FTRF's General Counsel Theresa Chmara provided a detailed report and handout.
Before she summarized the First Amendment / censorship cases FTRF is currently pursuing, Ms. Chmara offered a summary of the five issues currently dominating these cases.
1. State statutes and policies: The overarching question in these cases is whether or not people have the right to receive information. FTRF's position is that they do and that information should be free of viewpoint discrimination.
2. Acquisition or removal: FTRF's position is that viewpoint discrimination is an act of censorship. Whether censorship happens during the acquisitions process or by removal of the item(s) from a collection, the effect is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment.
3. Government speech: Ms. Chmara identified this issue as the most dangerous. If library collections were to be viewed as "government speech" (since taxpayer funds are used to purchase resources) then the government could potentially allow viewpoint discrimination. On the positive side, the public perception is that library collections are not government speech. The viewpoints included in collections are those of the authors of library resources.
4. Available elsewhere: This issue is mostly raised in the context of school library collections. FTRF's position is that saying youth can buy/borrow a book/resource from a bookstore or a public library violates their right to access if the item is intentionally unavailable in the school library due to viewpoint discrimination.
5. School libraries: Some arguments for controlling school library collections are based on the idea that library resources are part of the curriculum and therefore subject to control by school district decision-makers. FTRF's position is that school library collections are larger than the curriculum and therefore, should not be subject to such control.
I have attached Ms. Chmara's summary of current litigation for your information.
Media Coalition Report:
D. Horowitz summarized the activities of the Media Coalition. The coalition is rooted in the book (and other media) community. Their goal is to work collectively to stop legislation before it becomes law. Mr. Horowitz described their work as the "voice of No!"
For example, there were two anti-First Amendment bills under consideration in the Arizona House this past session. SB1435 aimed to hold public library and school employees accountable for facilitating minors' access to "sexually explicit material" by citing employees with Class 5 felonies (6 months to 2 ½ years in prison in Arizona). Additionally, HB2991 was an attempt to mandate social media platforms that could contain "harmful to minors" content to require parental consent for under 16-year-old users.
In these cases, the Media Coalition was able to convince Arizona House members to kill these bills in committee before they were heard by the Committee of the Whole. Another equally harmful bill passed but was vetoed by Governor Hobbs.
FTRF Judith F. Krug Education Committee:
As a member of the FTRF Krug Education Committee and as previously reported, I served as the chair of the Debunking Myths subcommittee. Dorcas Hand, Carl Harvey, Jamie Becker, and I used the results of the informal surveys we conducted last year and this past spring to identify myths that can impact the public's perception of libraries and the work librarians do as well as librarians' own practices related to the First Amendment and the Freedom to Read. We have finalized our work, which has been vetted and is slated to be uploaded on the new FTRF website soon.
FTRF Developing Issues Committee:
I am also attaching a report from the FTRF Developing Issues Committee. Chaired by Barbara Stripling, in the year 2025-2026 the committee investigated four topics: First Amendment/Freedom of Speech; Artificial Intelligence and Libraries; Academic Freedom in University and K-12 Environments; and Action Plan to Save Federal Government Information. Dr. Stripling and Dorcas Hand, FTRF Education Committee Chair, are in conversation about how to share this work more widely. There may be forthcoming webinars focused on each or all of these issues.
RMRT Advocacy Committee's Work:
At the end of the FTRF's morning meeting, I was invited to share RMRT information. I provided a handout of the downloadable RMRT Advocacy flyer. I noted that our survey of RMRT members indicated that funding and intellectual freedom were top concerns in our members' local libraries. Many of the advocacy activities suggested on the Advocacy Committee's flyer and webpages are related to the freedom to read.
Questions about FTRF / ALA Agreements:
Those of us who do not serve on the FTRF Executive Committee or who are not FTRF Trustees were not included in the after-lunch meeting related to new formal agreements between FTRF and ALA. These agreements were mentioned at the Virtual ALA Membership Meeting in June. As a result, I have nothing to report on that score. I assume FTRF and/or ALA will make some information known to their memberships in the near future.
Become an FTRF Member:
I hope you will consider becoming an FTRF member. The Foundation does such critical work, particularly at this time in the life of the library profession and of our country. You can learn more about FTRF on their currently under reconstruction website, including the recent award winners and Banned Books Week grants recipients: https://www.ftrf.org/
Passing the Baton:
I appreciate having had the privilege for the past three years of representing RMRT at the Freedom to Read Foundation. Sara Kelly Johns, who will be your next FTRF liaison, was able to attend as much of the June FTRF meeting as I did.
Sincerely,
Judi Moreillon, Now Former FTRF Liaison
info@storytrail.com
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Judi Moreillon, M.L.S., Ph.D.
Literacies and Libraries Author and Consultant
She/Her/Hers
info@storytrail.com
http://storytrail.com
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