January 17 was a big day for opponents of book bans in Texas schools. Charley Rejsek, CEO of indie bookstore BookPeople, had just returned home from a routine meeting at the Austin Central Library. She opened her email and screamed with joy: The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled in her favor in BookPeople v. Wong, a challenge to Texas’ Restricting Explicit and Adult-Designated Educational Resources (READER) Act.
“READER had felt like a death sentence,” Rejsek said. “With the ruling, BookPeople and all book vendors can continue to service school districts the way they always have. … The judges agreed with the unconstitutionality of the law as written. That’s validating.”
The decision came in the nick of time: Signed into law in June 2023, the READER Act would have barred booksellers from conducting business with Texas’ K–12 libraries if they hadn’t first identified whether the books they were selling were “sexually explicit,” “sexually graphic,” or had “no rating.” By April 1, booksellers would have also had to identify every explicit book they had ever sold to any Texas school district that was still “in active use” by that district. Vendors were to submit these ratings to the Texas Education Agency (TEA), which could override them. Noncompliance ran the risk of placement on a list of unapproved vendors. Many bookstores derive significant income from school sales, and the thin-margin and often resource-strapped indies incapable of complying would have had to rethink their businesses, if not shutter entirely.
