Huntington Beach can’t restrict minors from accessing books with sexual content in the city’s libraries, an Orange County judge said in a tentative ruling Friday, Sept. 5.
The decision stemmed from a lawsuit that some Huntington Beach residents and a local nonprofit filed against city leaders, alleging that efforts to restrict children’s books amounted to censorship that violates the state’s Freedom to Read Act.
In her ruling, Judge Lindsey Martinez directed the attorney for the group that brought the lawsuit to submit a writ of mandate in the next 30 days detailing how the city would have to comply with the law.
“Today is a good day, the city lost and democracy won,” said Erin Spivey, a former librarian and one of the plaintiffs in the case.
In October 2023, the conservative majority of the Huntington Beach City Council directed librarians to relocate from the children’s section books containing sexually explicit material. The council also arranged to establish a community library board, made up of 21 members appointed by the councilmembers, that would be tasked with reviewing and blocking the purchase of books with content it deemed inappropriate. The board was never seated.
The definitions of “sexual” or “inappropriate” content provided in the ordinance have resulted in the library staff relocating books on puberty, sexual health and even potty training, Spivey said. Restricted titles, which included “It’s Perfectly Normal” and “Sex Is a Funny Word,” were placed on a shelf on the library’s fourth floor and could not be checked out without parental consent.
In February, Spivey and two Huntington Beach teenagers, alongside the transgender rights nonprofit Alianza Translatinx, sued the city for violating the Freedom to Read Act, which prohibits public libraries from banning books “because of the topics, views, ideas, or opinions contained in them.”
Following a petition drive that forced a special election in June, Huntington Beach voters dealt a blow to the city’s policies by overwhelmingly approving measures to eliminate the community review board and bar the privatization of libraries.
Given the results of the election, the city’s attorney argued Friday that the court didn’t need to weigh in on policies that voters have repealed.
Councilmember Gracey Van Der Mark, who proposed the 2023 ordinance, said the city has “already taken proactive steps” to implement the measures that voters approved in June.
“While we are disappointed in the court’s recent ruling, the city remains committed to upholding the democratic process,” she said in a statement. “This matter will be further reviewed and discussed with the city attorney during closed session.”
Huntington Beach can appeal the court’s decision.
A nonprofit law firm co-founded by President Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, represented Huntington Beach in the lawsuit.
The U.S. Supreme Court in June sided with a group of Maryland parents who wanted their children to opt out of classes with LGBTQ-themed books. Huntington Beach evoked the ruling Friday to question the constitutionality of the Freedom to Read Act — an argument the judge dismissed.
Spivey said the writ of mandate will propose specific steps for Huntington Beach to take in order to comply with the state law, such as removing the “restricted books” list from the city library’s website and returning the books from the restricted area to the children’s section.
Spivey also hopes that the library restores the Young Adult section, which she said was essentially dismantled, she said. “I’m hopeful that the library will decide to honor their teenage readers and return the YA section.”