Thread by @jonfreadom

IcYMi. In the flurry of other outrageous news... On top of being first to unconstitutionally censor drag shows, now TN is moving to pass a law introducing felony charges and $100K fines for publishers if they sell obscene materials to public schools 🧵
tennessean.com/story/news/pol…

2. Ofc, TN already has laws against distribution of obscene materials to minors. So why this law? Clearly it's got an ulterior motive: to ban books by threatening or censoring publishers.

3. The law will give local DA's and the state AG discretion to determine when a book is 'obscene.' And that's where the sleight of hand is. The bill's sponsor Rep Lynn has a tenuous grasp on what that means, believing any "sexually explicit" content = obscenity. That's not true.

4. Take her word for it. Here Rep Lynn states plainly that even a few sexually explicit sentences in a book would qualify it as "obscene"... meaning under her idea of this law you could charge or fine publishers for selling a book with just about any sex in it to a school...

5. There's no way you could apply such a law to contemporary literature and not to something like the Bible, replete with sexual content. But no one thinks the Bible is porn or obscene. Because it isn't! Because a few sentences of anatomically correct descriptions is not obscene.

6. Already we've seen in Utah how its new state law allegedly against 'porn in schools' is being similarly stretched, to ban @MargaretAtwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, or @johngreen's Looking For Alaska. This new TN law would... stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2…

7. ...potentially make selling such books to schools (and dozens and dozens of others) a cause for criminal charges or fines. That's a flagrant recipe for chilling the circulation of ideas and stories. And could easily trickle into publishers' editing decisions.

8. That's even hinted at by Rep Lynn who blames publishers for effectively bringing this punishment on themselves, saying: "We're sorry it's the entire book, but they chose to put sexually explicit content in the book." She is telling publishers what she wants them to censor.

9. Finally, like so many other censorship bills in the #EdScare, this is another one offering a solution in search of a problem. Here, Rep Lynn refuses to produce the "librarians" who allegedly requested this preposterous bill.

10. Our full commentary @PENamerica . The law has passed the TN House & Senate and is waiting for Gov Lee's signature. pen.org/press-release/…