In October 2023, the Huntington Beach City Council passed a resolution that called for “review of library materials containing sexual content” and restricted minors’ access to these materials. As part of the measure, the city established a 21-member community review board with unappealable power to impose a censorial process over the library collection.
The measure impedes access to a wide range of topics including educational materials on gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, and reproductive health.
On February 26, 2025, three Huntington Beach residents – including two teenagers – and the non-profit Alianza Translatinx filed suit against city leaders challenging their censorship scheme in the Huntington Beach Library System that expressly violates the California Freedom to Read Act and the California Constitution.
Filed in Orange County Superior Court by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, the First Amendment Coalition, Community Legal Aid SoCal, and Jenner & Block LLP, the lawsuit asks the court to order the city to comply with the requirements of the 2024 California Freedom to Read Act and the California Constitution and to prohibit the city from implementing and enforcing its censorship scheme.
The following are examples of literature that was moved to the restricted area of the library in February of 2024:
- The children’s book Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi;
- The general science book The Way We Work: Getting to Know the Amazing Human Body by David Macaulay; and
- Rajani LaRocca’s Your One and Only Heart, a nonfiction picture book that explains the scientific importance of the human heart to children in poetic and lyrical terms.
Case Developments
Plaintiffs file complaint against the City of Huntington Beach.
