HITTING THE BOOKS

Publishers Sue After Idaho Bans Books Like ‘Game of Thrones’

Industry heavyweights including Penguin Random House and HarperCollins have launched a legal challenge.

A group of major publishers in the U.S. are suing the state of Idaho for what they call “vague and overbroad” laws banning minors from accessing certain books in libraries and schools deemed sexual. Republican-backed House Bill 710 was enacted in July last year after a years-long campaign by the Idaho legislature to censor material deemed harmful to kids. However, with even the likes of Game of Thrones by George RR Martin banned, publishing heavyweights, freedom of expression campaigners, library associations and even parents and students launched a legal challenge to the ruling Tuesday. Dan Novack, associate general counsel at Penguin Random House, said the law simply goes too far. “[It] goes even further than previous laws by removing classic books from public libraries in addition to schools,” he complained. Schools and public libraries have become the battleground of what is and what isn’t “harmful to minors.” And as a result, librarians are “in the untenable position of having to guess whether any member of the public might file an objection to a book whose message they disagree with,” as is the individual’s right under the law, the lawsuit says.