by Ty Tagami | Capitol Beat News Service
The Georgia Senate adopted a measure Monday that would strip librarians of their decades-old shield from prosecution for violating a law against giving children pornography and other materials deemed obscene.
Librarians have been exempted from Georgia’s “harmful to minors” law since the mid-1980s. Republican state senators have been trying to remove that exemption for several years.
The party-line 32-23 vote to pass Senate Bill 74 followed a partisan debate about free speech.
“It is a bill designed to protect children,” said Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, the chief sponsor of the measure. He said Georgia is one of four states that exempt librarians from obscene materials laws.
Burns said bookstores enjoy no such exemption and must filter questionable materials from children’s sections. Trained librarians should be expected to do the same, he said.
SB 74 “requires all Georgians to follow Georgia law. I don’t get an exemption. You don’t get an exemption.”
Democrats said the measure seeks to pressure librarians into more conservative judgments about whether content is obscene.
“It would criminalize librarians simply for doing their jobs,” said Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta.
The bill is not about protecting children, she said. “It’s much more about censorship and fear.”
Parent noted a movement in recent years to remove classics such as “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Diary of a Young Girl” from library shelves.
Burns said the legislation doesn’t seek to ban any particular book.
“We simply ask that you put it in the right place,” he said.
SB 74 now goes to the Georgia House of Representatives.
