Lapeer library board mulls age restrictions on materials despite shaky legal ground

Yahoo

a day ago

Members of Fight 4 the First Lapeer rally outside the Marguerite deAngeli Library on May 15, 2025 | Photo by Karen Braschayko
As members of a Livingston County library board march toward restricting materials deemed inappropriate for children, a similar effort is brewing in nearby Lapeer County, part of what's become a renewed effort in the culture war over children's books, especially those with LGBTQ+ content.
Some members of the Lapeer District Library Board have also been working to craft a policy to keep certain materials out of children's hands without running afoul of the law.
The effort stretches back several years to 2023, as community members sought to have several books pulled from library shelves.
Susan Hough, a member of the steering committee of Fight 4 the First, which advocates against censorship within the library district, said many of the books challenged deal with gender or LGBTQ issues.
Among those books was the award-winning 'Gender Queer: A Memoir,' a frequently challenged graphic novel which details author Maia Kobabe's coming of age tale as a person who identifies as nonbinary and asexual.
The source of the challenge stems from its inclusion of some drawings depicting nude characters and sexual scenarios, prompting opponents to label it pornographic.
Lapeer County Prosecutor John Miller suggested he might file criminal charges against employees or library officials if the book was not pulled from shelves. However, Amy Churchill, who was serving as the director of the library at the time, retained the ACLU of Michigan as legal counsel. The organization sent Miller a letter warning that taking action would threaten First Amendment freedoms, and violate his ethical duties as a prosecutor. When the challenge against the book was rejected, Miller took no action.
In the years since that incident, candidates with a conservative ideology have come to hold a majority of seats on the nonpartisan board, with some new members carrying ties to the initial book challenges.
In February, Hough said members of Fight 4 the First Lapeer uncovered a memo while reviewing the board's public records responding to a request for an opinion on policies to restrict access to certain books, including proposals to move certain children's books to an adult section, or putting certain books behind glass or the circulation desk, requiring a patron to ask for access.
20FEB2025 Legal Memo Regarding Book Restrictions
Anne Seurynk, an attorney with the Foster Swift law firm who the board had retained as counsel, warned that adopting any of the proposals would place the library on 'at best, shaky Constitutional ground' and would put the library at risk of being sued and losing. That could saddle the district with the cost of its own attorneys fees and the fees of their legal challenger.
Seurynk also served as corporate counsel for the Cromaine District Library, providing them with a similar notice regarding its own efforts to sequester controversial materials.
During a meeting of the Lapeer Tea Party in March, the board's Vice Chair John DeAngelis and Secretary Peggy Brotzke discussed efforts to limit the materials children can access.
DeAngelis was unable to offer details on what these restrictions would look like, but told attendees that the board would be consulting with its attorney on the issue. He later offered a rough timeline of six months for presenting potential options.
'We don't want to get sued. We don't want to burn up our funds in attorney fees,' DeAngelis said.'We want to do it the right way, so it will take some time. It won't happen overnight.'
DeAngelis and Brotzke did not respond to a request for an interview prior to publication, nor did board Chair Kari Kohlman.
DeAngelis during the Board's March meeting put forward a motion to replace Foster Swift with a local firm, Rickard, Denney, Leichliter, Childers & Bosch, with DeAngelis saying he would like to use local counsel to keep the board's money within the community. The motion passed with support from Kohlman, DeAngelis, Brotzke and Trustee Carol Brown, despite protest from former board chair Bill Marquardt and treasurer Perry Valle.
On its website, Rickard, Denney, Leichliter, Childers & Bosch describes its legal practice as 'advising and assisting individuals, churches, and other religious organizations in defending and taking full advantage of their religious freedom under federal and state law.' Other areas of practice include general civil litigation, representing individuals with small to medium-sized businesses, estate planning, real estate matters, zoning issues and other issues of land use.
Based on Brotzke's information request for the library's collections policy during her first board meeting in February, Hough expects to see proposals to amend the district's collection policy soon. The board's next meeting is set for June 19, with Fight 4 the First Lapeer planning to hold a 'Read-In for Freedom' at DeAngeli Library the same day.
The group held a similar rally in mid-May prior to a board meeting that ended up being canceled due to a lack of a quorum.
Although Brotzke and DeAngelis focused their concerns on protecting children and ensuring they are unable to access inappropriate materials, Hough said the question of what is appropriate varies from person to person.
'That's why we have library professionals who have been highly trained in child development and in literacy and in book selection, who use many tools, including professional reviews, publisher's reviews, etc., as well as their own personal knowledge to select books and place them in – what are considered by a professional – an appropriate place in the library,' Hough said.
When it comes to determining whether a book belongs in a library, Hough said she preferred to trust the professionals.
'I don't know about you, but I prefer to let my medical doctor guide me in medical decisions, and I prefer to let my attorney guide me in legal decisions. And I believe library professionals have the training and the expertise to guide us in what's appropriate,' Hough said.
Hough further noted that libraries legally cannot have obscene materials on their shelves.
While the Foster Swift memo makes clear that placing restrictions on materials could violate the U.S. Constitution, there's no such thing as First Amendment police, Hough said. That means there's no defense against these types of policies unless community members and free speech organizations are watching and willing to respond.
Should the board move forward with the policies and face legal consequences, Hough raised concerns about how that could impact funding for Lapeer libraries.
'That's money that should be used to provide materials for our community, provide services, because it's way beyond books' Hough said, pointing to other benefits like internet access and community programs.'There's just so much in our library that enriches the community, and all of these attacks are going to end up having fiscal outcomes.'
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