UnderpantsWeevil, 1 month ago

Public libraries should have little to no restrictions on books. Period.

So, in a private market for literature, public libraries have an enormous impact on who can profit from publication. A big part of this fight isn’t just prosecuting librarians, its controlling who gets to profit from bulk purchase of books.

They didn’t care about freedom and at this point Alabama should make this a ballot measure.

We’ve seen ballot measures functionally ignored in states like Florida and Ohio.

Here’s what some of those cases look like, from successful to unsuccessful efforts to alter the will of the people:

• In November 2023, Ohio voters passed an amendment to their state’s constitution protecting the right to abortion. Within a week, a group of Ohio Republican lawmakers declared the amendment to be invalid and introduced legislation that would strip state courts from having authority to rule on the issue of abortion. Ohio’s House speaker, Republican Jason Stephens, rejected the proposed legislation.

• In July 2018, Washington, D.C., voters approved an increase in the minimum wage for tipped workers. Three months later, the City Council repealed the initiative.

• In 2016, voters in South Dakota supported an initiative to revise campaign finance and lobbying laws and create an ethics commission. Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed a law repealing the initiative in February 2017. Another citizen initiative to create an ethics commission was on the ballot in 2018, but did not pass.

Not included in the article, but what always leaps to my mind is the 2018 Florida Felony Disenfranchisement Reform Amendment that was rejected by the state legislature and governor’s office a year later.