Gwinnett County Trustees Warned to
Back Off Value Judgments
A few days after the Gwinnett County, Georgia, solicitor declined to weigh whether The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll was harmful to minors, library trustees were advised by legal counsel that they might have made another rim shot. The county legal department has advised against retaining a policy that empowers a majority of either the board or the materials review committee with the right to move any item to a parent advisory section.
The ruling was the result of a request board members made of the legal department after approving the policy June 8 at the same meeting in which they took action on Basketball Diaries.
Library Director Jo Ann Pinder told American Libraries she had written trustees that county lawyers were cautioning that "the board would open themselves up for legal challenges" if they assumed a content-based role.
Posted August 17, 1998.
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