There was a lot happening at the end of the year, so I pulled out a handful of censorship updates that you may have missed over the last couple of months. It feels a little surreal to consider censorship after everything that’s happened since the beginning of the year, but this is also a reminder that we can focus on more than one catastrophe. And sometimes when things feel overwhelming, the best thing to do is channel our efforts into something with a more immediate local impact. Let’s dive in.

SCOTUS Denies Hearing For Llano County Book Case

One of the biggest censorship stories (and not in a good way) at the end of 2025 was SCOTUS refusing to hear the Llano County (TX) book case, without any explanation. Plaintiff Leila Green Little said, “This means that the en banc ruling of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will remain in effect for Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. This means that public library patrons have no First Amendment rights to access information. This means we now live in a censorship state.” PEN America also issued a statement.

File This One Under “Enormous Overreaction”

The Randolph County Board of Commissioners (NC) dissolved its library board after trustees voted to keep a Call Me Max, a picture book about a transgender boy, in the children’s section. Kasey Meehan, the director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program, said that this was one of the most severe penalties she’s ever seen in response to a so-called controversial book. And the author of the book, Kyle Lukoff, said the situation is particularly discouraging “because the library and its board followed their county’s procedures for book challenges and were still punished.”

Alabama Library Receives Donations to Make Up For Lost Funding

After the Alabama Public Library Board cancelled and redistributed funding for the Fairhope Public Library over materials shelved in the teen section, the library has received enough donations to cover the lost funding. I love seeing a community support the library, but libraries should never have to find themselves in this position.

Another Library Funding Update

Okay, this one isn’t a censorship update, but it is a follow-up to a WTF-level story from the end of last year. The Stephentown Memorial Library (NY) budget proposal was APPROVED 540-279 after an initial vote count indicated that the proposal failed by a 57 to 524 margin. (If you remember from the original article, voters saw the original results and said, “Wait a minute…we know there were FAR more people who voted in favor of the budget proposal,” which prompted a recount.) What this article doesn’t explain is how the hell the votes were so badly miscounted in the first place, but I’m glad the library received its funding.