Perfected HB3005 is another Legislative Missouri Mess

David Rice has exposed how HB3005, a bill pertaining to public libraries is rife with errors. The bill was pushed through quickly and quietly and is awaiting a vote before the end of this year's legislative session. Here's a portion. Go read the whole thing HERE.

The Unconstitutional Library

A new library bill threatens parent and patron rights, supplanting the freedom to think by codifying ALA theories into Missouri law.

HickChristian News

Apr 6

From: Soviet Artefacts

We have expectations that the materials our sons and daughters read at the library, school or public, will be safe. Though many of us are waking up to the fact that these materials aren’t safe anymore. Books like the newly published Sibylline include a threesome with two young men and a woman [Right to Win Ozarks link], and one of the men (eighteen) was just killed. It’s necrophilia and the magic of sex and love bring the dead man back to life in the middle of raping his corpse.

Parents have demanded a rating system for movies, for music, are succeeding with an age-verification for porn sites across the US in many states (not Missouri though, thanks to our supermajority progressive Republicans). Yet, we can’t have a rating system for books? Except for Vendors and Publishers to recommend 12-17 year olds read a book about a corpse being raped?

This book is in our Christian County Library. It’s one of nearly 50 new books in the last six months that your child may be reading that is rated by the vendor for tweens and teens and the Library will allow anyone of any age to check out. In total, I have documented around four hundred books in our collection like this. If you have a precocious eight year old that can read above their grade level, the library won’t stop them from checking out books like this.

What is your duty as a parent? In this situation, you can go to the Library Board meetings, but that won’t help. You can write letters to your State Representatives. That won’t help either.

Our government in Missouri has decided they have an answer to our problems. Representative Doyle Justus (District 41) and Bill Lucas (District 115) have sponsored a bill, HB 3005.

The bill is only three pages long, but it has been perfected. In Missouri, that means it has cleared committee hearings, received public testimony, been amended and revised—in this case losing at least one significant protection along the way—passed out of committee as a substitute bill, gone to the full House floor for debate and second reading, and survived all of that. It now sits on the Informal Third Reading Calendar, which means it is one step from a final House vote.

All it takes is for Rep. Jon Patterson, the radical progressive Republican House Speaker from Lee’s Summit to bring it to a vote. He was so popular with the House Democrats, their radical progressive stepped aside for him like a coronation. He’ll bring HB 3005 to a vote with all the other bills at the end of the session when no one sees it coming.

HB 3005

HB 3005’s three pages reach for simplicity, but hide a complexity that will have to be unpacked. First, let’s analyze what sponsors will claim it does. Justus and Lucas will claim Libraries must now have a written policy detailing to patrons how to challenge books like Sibylline or Gender Queer. Libraries must post that policy in a public space. If a patron files a challenge, the material stays on the shelf during the review process. The challenger can only file a reconsideration if they have read the entire book or consumed the entire media (film or audiobook). If the challenger disagrees with the Libraries decision, they can appeal. The same material cannot be challenged again for two years. Library employees cannot be fired for refusing to remove a book before the process completes.

If you are a sharp reader, you’ll have already seen several issues with what it proposes. One of the individuals who testified, provided a blistering legal takedown of it. The sponsors were warned it was unconstitutional and they moved forward anyway. I emailed Representatives Bob Titus and Burt Whaley, notifying both of her testimony to ask them if they plan to vote on this bill. I also emailed Rep. Justus and Lucas asking if they will withdraw this bill.

Further, I emailed all five board members of Christian County Library so you can see what they think about losing their statutory authority over their executive director and their ability to affect change in their community.

So far, out of the nine people I emailed, the only Rep to respond was Lucas. I promise I was polite.

I should have signed with x’s and o’s. Dang it.

Lucas’s response deflected blame like a little brother caught with a baseball bat in front of a broken window. Justus pitched. Lucas swung and Justus ran.

Lucas responded to my email with one sentence: "The author and sponsor of HB3005 is Representative Justus." When I pointed out I have evidence he’s the co-sponsor (recorded on the Missouri House website), he did not respond further...

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There is so much more about HB3005 over at Hick Christian News. Again, read the whole thing HERE.