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Georgia Senate moves to strip librarians of decades-old shield from prosecution

FILE - Books sit on shelves in an elementary school library in suburban Atlanta, Aug. 18, 2023. A Georgia state Senate committee on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, advanced a proposal that would require school libraries to notify parents by email of every book a child obtains. (AP Photo/Hakim Wright Sr., File)
(AP Photo/Hakim Wright Sr., File)

The Georgia Senate adopted a measure Monday that would strip librarians of their decades-old shield from prosecution for violating a law against giving children pornography and other materials deemed obscene. Librarians have been exempted from Georgia’s “harmful to minors” law since the mid-1980s. Republican state senators have been trying to remove that exemption for several years.

Democrats said the measure seeks to pressure librarians into more conservative judgments about whether content is obscene. They say it’s not about protecting children but censorship and fear. The party-line 32-23 vote to pass Senate Bill 74. It now heads to the Georgia House.