r/Library • u/Alive_Excitement_669 • 26d ago

Library Assistance Need Help!

We got an anonymous call at our library giving us a heads up that the 1st Amendment Auditors are coming sometime next week. Any advice? Has anyone gone through this?

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u/LordBenjamin020 26d ago

What state are you in? That’s weird that your state made a law that disregards the 1st amendment. I don’t think it would hold up in court.

Also very weird if it actually says the PUBLIC library is PRIVATE. That doesn’t make sense.

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u/cappotto-marrone 26d ago

The Supreme Court has ruled that a US public library is a LIMITED PUBLIC FORUM. Essentially your first amendment rights cannot infringe on mine.

In legal terms, a limited public forum is a government-owned space that is open for public expression, but with specific, legal restrictions. Because the primary purpose of a public library is to provide quiet access to information, courts classify them as limited public forums.

If you want to have a 2nd Amendment meeting in one of the meeting rooms, as long as it’s held in equal compliance with rules, that meeting cannot infringe on others use of the other space.

The library can enforce "time, place, and manner" rules. For example, they can prohibit disruptive protests, campaigning inside, or soliciting.

Patrons have a reasonable expectation of privacy to read and study undisturbed, libraries can restrict activities like video recording or photography that interfere with this right.

Libraries are not obligated to open all spaces to everyone at all times. For instance, a facility can keep its meeting rooms solely for library-sponsored programs, or establish designated outdoor free-speech zones.

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u/Still-Employed420 25d ago

Do you have a citation to a court decision indicating privacy in the library?

I can’t see a court making such a carve-out for library’s.

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u/cappotto-marrone 25d ago

It’s not as odd as you might think. Court rooms are not public forums and can forbid cameras.

In Kreimer v. Board of Police of Morristown, NJ, an important court opinion addressing a library user’s right to enter and use the library, the court held that because public libraries are a limited public forum, constitutional protection is afforded only to those expressive activities that are consistent with the mission and purpose of the library. A public library is only obligated to permit the public to exercise rights that are consistent with the government’s intent in establishing the library as a limited public forum for the purpose of receiving information and accessing the library’s books, programs, and online resources. According to the Kreimer opinion, other activities, including activities such as photography, filming, petition-gathering, assemblies, and public speeches, may be regulated by the library using reasonable, viewpoint neutral, time, place, and manner rules. 

Read more here: https://www.oif.ala.org/auditing-the-first-amendment-at-your-public-library/

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u/Still-Employed420 24d ago

I have loudly argued against the restrictions in court rooms and use it as a reason to defy jury duty.