Goldstone claims that the library’s refusal violates the state constitution, and he believes that all public libraries should issue cards to nonresidents willing to pay a fee. Goldstone attorney Robert Toohey said in the November 7 Detroit Free Press, “We now have a chance to gain some uniformity among all the libraries in Michigan as to book borrowing.”
“A negative outcome could collapse a delicately balanced system of state and local support for libraries,” the Michigan Library Association asserted in a November 6 statement. “If the court argues that every citizen has a right to borrow resources from any local library, regardless of local regulations or equitable tax burden, then communities which have historically supported their libraries through local millages will stop and the burden of funding public libraries, as clearly called for in the Constitution, will be left to the state.”
On May 13, 2005, a circuit judge threw out Goldstone’s lawsuit on grounds that the state constitution did not intend to remove circulation control from local libraries. The Michigan Court of Appeals later upheld the decision. However, the Supreme Court heard preliminary arguments October 11, and on November 1 invited the Michigan Library Association, state attorney general, Michigan Municipal League, Michigan Association of Counties, and others to file briefs in the case. Oral arguments could be heard as early as spring 2007.
Posted November 10, 2006.