Supreme Court denies hearing plaintiff appeal in Llano County Library lawsuit; case closes in favor of county
On Monday, Dec. 8, the U.S. Supreme Court denied hearing an appeal from the plaintiffs in a long-term First Amendment lawsuit involving Llano County regarding the contentious removal of several books from the county’s library shelves in 2021.
The Supreme Court’s decision has effectively closed the case, supporting a ruling made by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that sided with Llano County officials in May. The case, Leila Green Little, et al. v. Llano County, et. al., had been underway since April 2022, with several major swings in court decisions between the plaintiffs and defendants.
“It’s a welcome relief to have this over with,” Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham told DailyTrib on Monday morning. “We felt better after the en banc hearing (in May), but we didn’t know what the supreme court would do.”
Following the May ruling of the Fifth Circuit, the plaintiffs filed a request in September to the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of that decision. At 9:30 a.m. EST on Monday, the court released an order list, one of those orders being the denial of the plaintiffs’ request.
“This morning, the Supreme Court of the United States denied our petition for certiorari (the request to hear an appeal),” reads an email to DailyTrib from Leila Green Little, the plaintiff at the forefront of the years-long legal battle with Llano County. “They will not hear our case. No explanation is given.”
Little also shared pointed words regarding her own beliefs on the court’s decision.
“This (decision) means that the en banc ruling of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will remain in effect for Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi,” she wrote. “This means that public library patrons have no First Amendment rights to access information. This means we now live in a censorship state.”
The May ruling of the Fifth Circuit established the county’s right to add or remove content from the county’s library system at the discretion of library leadership, denying that any constitutional rights had been violated when 17 books were removed from library shelves outside of normal procedures based on their sexual, historical, and cultural content. Several of the books in question dealt with LGBTQ-plus themes, others dealt with social commentary on race and class in the United States, and many were children’s books focused on “farts and butts.”
Read more about the the Fifth Circuit’s ruling and see the full list of the books removed from library shelves in the May 28 DailyTrib story “Appeals court reversal puts book decision back in Llano County’s hands.”
“Whoever won, whoever lost, we have to work together going forward after this,” Judge Cunningham said. “We are committed to doing that. It’s going to be up to others, who lost, if they want to work with us. I can’t make that choice for them.”
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit included Llano County residents Leila Green Little, Jeanne Puryear, Kathy Kennedy, Rebecca Jones, Richard Day, Cynthia Waring, and Diane Moster.
The defendants in the lawsuit included the Llano County government, as a standalone entity; Ron Cunningham, Jerry Don Moss, Peter Jones, Mike Sandoval, and Linda Raschke in their capacities as members of the Llano County Commissioners Court; and Amber Milum in her capacity as the Llano County Library System Director.
Legal background
Read more about the lawsuit and its history in the following DailyTrib stories:
- Llano County closes library system to review content of children’s materials, December 2021
- Anti-censorship group forms to oppose Library Advisory Board, March 2022
- Llano County faces federal lawsuit over censorship in library system, April 2022
- Banned books back in circulation in Llano, April 2023
- Llano libraries remain open—for now, April 2023
- Fired Kingsland librarian files civil suit against Llano County, March 2024
- Stephen King, James Patterson show support for plaintiffs in library lawsuit, September 2024
- Full appeals court hears library case, September 2024
- Appeals court reversal puts book decision back in Llano County’s hands, May 2025
- Llano County library suit plaintiffs petition for Supreme Court review, September 2025
List of books originally removed in December 2021
- “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson
- “They Called Themselves the K.K.K: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
- “Spinning” by Tillie Walden
- “Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen” by Jazz Jennings
- “Shine” by Lauren Myracle
- “Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale” by Lauren Myracle
- “Gabi, a Girl in Pieces” by Isabel Quintero
- “Freakboy” by Kristin Elizabeth Clark
- “In the Night Kitchen” by Maurice Sendak
- “It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health” by Robie Harris
- “My Butt is So Noisy!” by Dawn McMillan
- “I Broke my Butt!” by Dawn McMillan
- “I Need a New Butt!” by Dawn McMillan
- “Larry the Farting Leprechaun” By Jane Bexley
- “Gary the Goose and His Gas on the Loose” by Jane Bexley
- “Freddie the Farting Snowman” by Jane Bexley
- “Harvey the Heart Had Too Many Farts” by Jane Bexley
1 thought on “Supreme Court denies hearing plaintiff appeal in Llano County Library lawsuit; case closes in favor of county”
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Removal of well-reviewed books from a public library with content that expresses a different point-of-view from your own, is just flat wrong, and more importantly, unconstitutional. History will not look kindly on this egregious misstep by the Llano County government.