UPDATE 10:15 a.m., Friday, with information from new court filings.
The coalition of private schools and libraries suing to block Idaho’s “harmful” material library law wants to speed up the court process with the new school year looming. But Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s office wants more time to craft its defense of the law.
On July 25, the coalition — which includes private schools, a church, a library and a handful of parents — filed a lawsuit asking the U.S. District Court for Idaho to declare the the Children’s School and Library Protection Act unconstitutional and block its enforcement. The coalition claims that the new law, enacted through House Bill 710, infringes on constitutional rights to access information and guide children’s education free from government interference.
The new school year starts Aug. 19 and 26 for Foothills School of Arts and Sciences and Sun Valley Community School, respectively. The nonprofit private schools are both plaintiffs in the case.
On Tuesday, the coalition’s attorneys filed a motion asking for an expedited briefing schedule. If approved, the federal court would advance by four days the Aug. 16 deadline for defendants to respond to the injunction request.
The schools and their patrons are “entitled to urgent, preliminary relief” and “will continue to suffer irreparable injury until the court enjoins or restrains enforcement of the law,” the coalition’s attorneys wrote.
None of the defendants — Labrador, Ada County Prosecutor Jan Bennetts and Blaine County Prosecutor Matt Fredback — have filed a response to the coalition’s motion for a preliminary injunction, which would temporarily block enforcement of the law as the case is adjudicated.
Labrador’s office is hoping to push back its response deadline. The attorney general’s office declined to consent to an expedited schedule and said it plans to seek an extension, according to the coalition’s motion. Labrador spokesman Dan Estes confirmed to Idaho Education News that the AG’s office will seek an extension but declined to further comment on “specific litigation strategy.”
On Thursday, Labrador’s office filed a memo asking the court to deny the coalition’s request for an expedited schedule. Deputy Attorney General Aaron Green argued that opponents of HB 710 have had more than enough time to challenge it. The bill was signed into law on April 10, and went into effect July 1.
Green cited a 1985 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Court: The court found that a “long delay before seeking a preliminary injunction implies a lack of urgency and irreparable harm” and denied a request for preliminary relief.
“If the harm is truly irreparable, then why did (the) plaintiffs wait four months until the very eve of the school year to file this case?” Green wrote.
In a quick response Friday, coalition attorneys called the AG’s argument “meritless” and noted that the Ninth Circuit ruling from 1985 denied preliminary relief because “the challenged practice had persisted for ‘decades.’”
The coalition “filed suit raising a host of meritorious constitutional challenges to HB 710 just 25 days after the law took effect and nearly a month before the beginning of the 2024-25 school years at Foothills and SVCS,” the attorneys wrote.
According to the coalition’s attorneys, Bennetts “took no position” on the the request to expedite the schedule while Fredback did not respond to inquiries.
“The court should reject defendants’ effort to impose HB 710’s patently unconstitutional prohibition on plaintiffs through inaction or inattention,” the coalition’s Tuesday motion said.
The Children’s School and Library Protection Act prohibits public libraries and schools — both public and private — from allowing children to access “harmful” material. The law requires libraries to implement procedures allowing patrons to challenge material under the “harmful” definition. And it grants book challengers a private cause of action to sue a library. A successful lawsuit carries a $250 fine for the library or school, along with potential uncapped civil damages.
