Massachusetts News: An Independent News Source for Massachusetts Politics

I have explained that librarians censor very quietly because they choose which books to buy. If anyone challenges them afterward, they yell, "Help! Book-burner! Book-burner!"

This was done very adroitly in 1978 by the school librarian in Chelsea and Judge Joseph Tauro of Boston's federal Court.

Is Your Library Censoring What You Can Read?

How To Find Out
What Can You Do About It?

Is your library censoring what you are allowed to read?

You can quickly find out. A good start would be to see if they have any of the eleven books that appear on our list. The best library had eight of the eleven. The towns that are the most "tolerant" had none. It would be good to point out to them that Wellesley has eight.

Make your own list of non-liberal books. If they're not in your library, talk to your librarian and the members of the library board that you elected.

If you're a beginner, you should probably not start with Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth. That will bring personal attacks against you because we do not live in a free society. You will be accused of hate. Again, it might be good to point out that Boston University, Boston College and UMass/Amherst all have that book. You might be able to find other libraries that also do.

Please send a Letter to the Editor at MassNews and let us know what happens.

In all my experience in practicing law for twelve years and in legal publishing from 1972 until I sold my company in 1997, this is the case that was the most egregious and outrageous because it would destroy all the values of our democracy.

I have kept a copy of the case in my desk all these years because it was so disturbing. Its name was, "Right to Read Committee of Chelsea, et al v. School Committee of the City of Chelsea."

And as fate would have it, the librarians of Massachusetts are still celebrating that case, more than twenty years later. A gala about it was held in the Walpole library, two days after our panel. It was led by a teacher of English at Chelsea, one of the plaintiffs in the suit back in 1978.

In the Chelsea case, parents complained about a book that was in the school library. One poem, authored by a fifteen-year-old girl, was an obscenity-laced piece titled "Male and Female under 18." The school committee took the book out of the library.

Some people, primarily employees of the school district, brought a suit. Judge Tauro, who is now chief justice of the U.S. District Court in Boston, held that the school committee had a right to decide if they were going to have a library at all. They also had a right to decide which books should be in the library. But if the librarian snuck a book in there without anyone knowing about it, the book could not be removed.

This is obviously absurd. School libraries remove many books every year. Who is to say whether they are removing a book for this purpose or that purpose or what purpose? Does that mean every time we have a decision in a school library, a federal judge is going to go in and decide what books are going to be removed that year? No wonder our judges say they're so busy.

That is the only case I have kept with me and in my possession for the last 25 years.

It is the erosion of democracy in America when a federal court takes over that type of thing and tells the people what type of books they have to have in their library.

If some school wants to have that book in its library, that's fine. But if some other school wants to take it out of its library, who are we to say that any town must keep that book in its library. It's absolutely, totally absurd. And yet our librarians are still celebrating it as a great victory over the citizens.

The case wasn't appealed, so it is still the law and people still cite it. But it is difficult to believe that any case that relied upon it would ever be affirmed by any U.S. Court of Appeals - even the one in Boston.