Republican U.S. senators grilled Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias over a state law he championed that aims to deter book bans.
Alexi Giannoulias, Illinois secretary of state, talks with Sens. Richard Durbin, right, and Chuck Grassley during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing"Book Bans: Examining How Censorship Limits Liberty and Literature," Sept. 12, 2023, in Washington.
“Am I supposed to, as a United States senator, take over the libraries across this country and be the final say of what goes in a library? I hope not. I think not,” Graham said. “So this is an important hearing in this regard: It shows the difference of the two parties on this issue.
In signing the bill in June, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said there were 67 attempts to ban books in the state last year, based on figures from the Chicago-based American Library Association. There were 1,477 instances of books being banned nationwide during the first half of the 2022-23 school year, affecting 874 individual titles, according to PEN America, a group that advocates for free expression in literature.
Nicole Neily, a Republican witness from Arlington, Virginia, and president of Parents Defending Education, contended her group and others challenging books and library materials were being victimized. Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, after reading sexually graphic portions of two books, asked Giannoulias exactly what he was advocating for.
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