Fifth Circuit Lets Texas Keep Its Book Rating Law — For Now

Fifth Circuit Lets Texas Keep Its Book Rating Law — For Now

A federal appeals court has cleared the way for Texas to enforce a law requiring book vendors to rate sexual content in materials they sell to public schools, handing the state a win in a First Amendment fight that has been bouncing between courthouses for more than a year.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its ruling in Book People, Inc. v. Wong, reversing a district court decision that had blocked the 2023 law, known as the READER Act. The statute requires vendors to submit library materials to a state-rated system for "sexually explicit" and "sexually relevant" content, and bars schools from purchasing from vendors that refuse. A group of booksellers and publishers, including Book People and the Association of American Publishers, sued, arguing the law compels speech and is unconstitutionally vague.

The case has already made one trip to the Supreme Court, which in 2024 declined to vacate the Fifth Circuit's earlier stay of the district court's injunction — a procedural move that let the law take effect while litigation continued. The appeals court's latest decision keeps the READER Act in force as the challenge proceeds, a significant development for school libraries across Texas and for vendors nationwide who do business with them.

What to watch: whether the plaintiffs seek Supreme Court review again, and how the district court handles the merits now that the appellate court has spoken. The ruling also lands amid a broader wave of state laws regulating school library content, making the Fifth Circuit's reasoning a potential template for courts in other circuits.

Primary sources: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, CourtListener docket and opinion records