Good news from Virginia Beach:
A judge in Virginia Beach Circuit Court ruled that bookstores in Virginia will not require minors to have parental permission to buy two sexually-explicit books at the center of a court case.
…
A little under two hours into the court hearing the judge ruled the statute was unconstitutional and that there was absence of due process. She said she can’t guarantee all affected parties were here in the courtroom and that it’s not the court’s place to rule on this matter.
Virginia legislator and attorney Tim Anderson was asking the court to require Barnes and Noble, as well as a handful of other stores, to require parental consent before selling the books to minors. A decision that hinged on whether the books in question are considered obscene.
For more background on this story, see Video: Far-Right VA Del. Tim Anderson (R) Urges Parents “All Over Virginia” to Go to Court to Decide Which Books Children Should Have Access To; Cites “Gender Queer,” “A Court of Mist and Fury,” “Handmaid’s Tale,” etc. (This is so un-American”; “This is what fascism looks like”). Also, see below for some reactions, including by Del. Anderson himself, as well as by the Virginia ACLU, which points out, “Just because someone disagrees with a book, doesn’t give them the license to ban it for others.”
Sign up for the Blue Virginia weekly newsletter
