Bill Description: House Bill 796 (H796) would establish a lower standard for obscenity in public schools and libraries.

Rating: +1

Does it promote the breakdown of the traditional family or the deconstruction of societal norms? Examples include promoting or incentivizing degeneracy, violating parental rights, and compromising the innocence of children. Conversely, does it protect or uphold the structure, tenets, and traditional values of Western society?

H796 would clarify various regulations regarding the presence of obscene materials in schools and libraries. Most notably, this legislation would establish two separate standards for private schools and public schools/libraries. Private schools will still be prohibited from making available or promoting “any material that is sexually explicit and, taken as a whole, is harmful to minors.” By contrast, public schools and libraries will be prohibited from making available or promoting “any material that is sexually explicit.” The rationale behind this distinction is that because public schools and libraries are government entities, the regulation of their activities constitutes “government speech.” As a result, the government is permitted to establish a threshold for permissible speech below what is typically required under the modern understanding of the First Amendment. By contrast, because private schools are by definition private entities, any restrictions on their activities is subject to the higher threshold of the Miller Test, which permits anything that does not appeal to a prurient interest. 

Accordingly, H796 upholds traditional family values by ensuring that public schools and libraries are free of all sexually explicit content. 

(+1)