The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), joined by right to read advocate Steven Pico, has filed an amicus brief before the United States Supreme Court. In May 2025, a majority of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in Little v. Llano County that library patrons have no First Amendment right to receive information and ideas from the government in the form of library books. A plurality of the court took this a step further, finding that the curation of public library materials amounts to a concept known as “government speech,” meaning that the addition or removal of books from public library shelves is not subject to the limitations of the First Amendment. The plaintiffs in Little, who are Llano County library patrons, have filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court requesting that they reverse the Fifth Circuit’s egregious ruling. NCAC’s brief supports this petition, arguing that the right to receive information is well established under the First Amendment and the removal of a library book based on disagreement with its viewpoint violates the Constitution – a standard established over forty years ago in Board of Education v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853, a case taken to the Supreme Court by then-plaintiff, and current amicus partner, Steven Pico in 1982. NCAC and Pico were represented by the First Amendment Clinic at SMU Dedman School of Law.
Read NCAC’s Amicus Brief in Little v. Llano County Here:<span data-preserver-spaces=”true”>Click </span><a class=”editor-rtfLink” href=”https://ncac.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Little-v.-Llano-County.pdf” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”><span data-preserver-spaces=”true”>here for a full-screen view:</span></a><embed src=”https://ncac.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Little-v.-Llano-County.pdf” width=”100%” height=”800″></embed>