Opinion: Legal Letter Sent to Regional Library Board

Edited to add: Date that Scott Johnson addressed the board (November 2023.) The November 2023 Meeting Minutes are now missing from the website. I was able to obtain those and post them from a library patron who attends meeting frequently. I posted the minutes after the letter.

I received a copy of a letter today from an anonymous source that was sent to the Greater Clark Hills Regional Library Board. I contacted the author of the letter, Mr. Wade Herring II from HunterMaclean Attorneys located in Savannah, GA and he confirmed that he was the author that sent the letter.

I’ve often wondered about the legalities that surround the new library guidelines that were passed by the Columbia County Board of Commissioners in early September. In fact, I sent an email to the county attorney (Chris Driver), copied the county manager (Scott Johnson), and asked for Mr. Driver to speak at the November Columbia County Library Advisory Board meeting but there was no response to my email. Mr. Driver did not speak at the meeting and I’m unsure if he was in attendance. Mr. Driver did weigh-in though in August 2023 when the Columbia County Board of Commissioners was approached by a citizen to make changes at the library that would allow the removal or reshelving of LGBTQ+ books/ content. According to reporting by the Augusta Press at the time, Mr. Driver informed the Commissioners that this would be considered a “content-based” restriction or shelving, which has been found to be unconstitutional. Mr. Scott Johnson also informed the Columbia County Library Advisory Board in November 2023 that a content-based restriction or reshelving is not allowed. However, he stated that reshelving on the basis of obscenity or profanity, might be allowed.

Approximately one year later, the Commissioners passed the guidelines. It’s unclear if Mr. Driver weighed-in on the guidelines. When Mr. Johnson spoke about the guidelines at the Commissioner’s meeting when it was passed, he said that “staff” had OK’d the guidelines. Nobody asked Mr. Driver anything. In fact, there was no discussion as they all voted unanimously with no discussion or questions on guidelines which I believe are a First Amendment violation. I wonder though if Mr. Driver knew that the guidelines would be used as a cover to screen books using the Mom’s for Liberty database, BookLooks. Did he know that they would be considered such broad guidelines that even Captain Underpants could be moved to the adult section for nudity? Did the commissioners think that this would work as a legal loophole to move LGBTQ+ books to the adult section?

I guess I said all of that to say, at least some of these legal issues have been brought to the forefront before. It seems strange to go forward with it even though everyone has been warned in the past. The current letter that was sent is much more detailed and pointed though, then simply a broad warning. This letter specifically says, these guidelines are a violation of First Amendment rights. This letter sites actual case law to prove the point. Further, it says that individual regional board members could be found liable, in addition to the library system itself. I’m posting the letter with this blog entry so you can see for yourself

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