State Representative James Burchett (R-Waycross) said Friday that he believes members of the Georgia General Assembly will pass a bill that would, if enacted into law, clamp down on obscene material in public school libraries.
But the bill still has a long way to go.
Members of the Georgia Senate voted for the bill, SB 226, last year. Now members of the Georgia House have it. Burchett, who sponsors the bill in the statehouse, said it’s in the subcommittee and legislators are revising certain parts.
Aimee Nobile, with the Georgia chapter of No Left Turn, said this week that the state’s public-school libraries have “an unbelievable amount of obscene material.” What she described was too graphic for The Georgia Star News to elaborate upon.
“The bill that is happening right now is supposed to allow an appeals process for questionable books. What it would do is put in a specific timeline and allow an appeals process for parents if there is objectionable material,” Nobile said.
“If the school turns it down then there are some school districts that allow appeals processes. If the school were to turn it down they have to actually publish the objectionable passages on their website, I believe, for a period of 18 months. It looked like it was going to get out of the subcommittee, but they were worried about some kind of copyright issue.”
Burchett said the proposed revisions would, among other things, allow parents to offer more input. The revisions also address copyright concerns regarding the publishing of any material not deemed obscene.
“I get the opposition to this bill. They don’t want it to be a weapon to be able to go against gray material or a weapon against something deemed artistic. But the definition of obscene is a community standard,” Burchett said.
“What is obscene in one county is different than what is obscene in Fulton County. We are leaving that determination up to the local officials. The primary objective of this bill is to give it some due process.”
If Georgia legislators pass the bill into law then Burchett said he does not expect anyone to file a court challenge opposing it.
“The bill tracks the Supreme Court’s language as to how to determine something is obscene,” Burchett said.
“Obscene material doesn’t have a First Amendment protection.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star and The Georgia Star News. Follow Chris on Facebook, Twitter, Parler, and GETTR. Email tips to [email protected].
