JACKSON COUNTY, Mo. (KCTV) - Three years after a new law went into effect penalizing school employees for giving students “obscene materials,” a Jackson County judge has ruled in favor of Missouri library advocates, saying it was unconstitutional.

In February 2023, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri (ACLU) filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Missouri Association of School Librarians (MASL) and the Missouri Library Association (MLA). The lawsuit alleged that a recently enacted law was unconstitutionally vague and violated free speech rights.

Background

Section 573.550 RSMo. , a provision of the larger Senate Bill 775, created a new misdemeanor crime in Missouri: “providing explicit sexual material to a student.”

In summary, it prohibited anyone affiliated with an elementary or

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