Social Movements & the Law

BOSTON, MA – April 30, 2025 - To honor Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, the Boston Public Library (BPL) is…

Tribes that rely on the Colorado River — and the complex set of rules that govern it — are worried as the Donald Trump administration takes actions affecting their access to water.

Unaccompanied minors who cross the border are uniquely vulnerable to trafficking. Now, legal aid groups that help them are facing funding cuts.

More children could be in dangerous child labor situations if Federal cuts continue that until recently have paid for legal services for migrant children.

Language is at the heart of Diné identity, carrying with it stories, traditions, and a worldview deeply rooted in the land and history of the Navajo people. As Diné poets, educators, and language advocates work to sustain Diné Bizaad, many are embracing poetry, playwriting, and performance as tools for preservation and revitalization.Aresta Tsosie-Paddock is Naakaii Dine’é and born for Bįįh Bitoodnii. Her cheii is Tł’ízíłání and her nálí is Kinyaa’áanii.

The Trump administration plans to strictly require anyone illegally in the U.S. to register with the government and carry documentation.

The Tohono O’odham language is at risk of disappearing, with far fewer people speaking it today. To help keep it alive, the Tohono O’odham Nation has opened the O’odham Ňi’okĭ Ki: Language Center, which offers classes and resources for learning the language. There have also been events put on by the community to discuss how to continue the language into the future. Efforts by educators, elders and the community continue to look for solutions to keep O’odham alive.

The attrition rate for associates in law firms was 20% in 2024, up from 18% in 2023 but still lower than the historic high of 26% in 2021, according to the NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education.

Ed Martin sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation accusing it of spreading propaganda

Immigration lawyers outside Massachusetts are also receiving notices to self-deport, despite their U.S. citizenship.

North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong vetoed a library content bill, calling it “a misguided attempt to legislate morality through overreach and censorship.”

The digital age has dramatically expanded how we connect, communicate, and share. Yet with these advances come new risks—especially for vulnerable individuals targeted through online platforms. ...

This document is the result of a year of work and collaboration by the Trans Metadata Collective (TMDC; https://transmetadatacollective.org/), a group of dozens of cataloguers, librarians, archivists, scholars, and information professionals with a concerted interest in improving the description and classification of trans and gender diverse people in GLAMS (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums and Special Collections). The Collective’s primary goal was to develop a set of best practices for the description, cataloguing, and classification of information resources as well as the creation of metadata about trans and gender diverse people, including authors and other creators

Georgia is considering a bill aimed at preventing children from accessing explicit library material. Opponents say it would chill free speech

Penguin Random House LLC et al v. Gibson et al (6:24-cv-01573), Florida Middle District Court, Filed: 08/29/2024

By: Matt Nosanchuk, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Strategic Operations and Outreach, Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education All students deserve access to learning environments that are inclusive and free from discrimination and that nurture their intellect, wellbeing, and creativity, preparing them for success in school and beyond. Books have been the gateway toContinue Reading

The American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has released new data documenting book challenges throughout the United States, finding that challenges of unique titles surged 65% in 2023 compared to 2022 numbers, reaching the highest level ever documented by ALA. Read the full announcement. OIF documented 4,240 unique book titles targeted for censorship, more than the previous two years combined (2,571 in 2022; 1,651 in 2021), as well as 1,247 demands to censor library books, materials, and resources in 2023.

They care deeply and can't be fired. Retired librarians are bringing experience and passion to the cause of intellectual freedom. With advocacy skills training and opportunities to mentor, retirees could become even more powerful assets.

In the Past and Present, They’ve Fought Book Bans and Censorship.

What happens when large language models are asked to provide justifications for book bans? Do the same built-in guardrails that prevent them from generating ...

From the Des Moines Register: The small farming community of Alta in northwest Iowa barely has 2,000 residents. The elementary school that shares its name has fewer than 300 students. Neither is big enough to have a quality library on its own. So for the last 20 years, the two have operated a library together, […]

PEN America, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to free expression through literature, has created a dataset tracking books banned or restricted in school classrooms and libraries in the United States from July 2021 to March 2022. The dataset contains the book’s name and author, the schoo

From a Joint Announcement (via Harvard Library): The HBCU Library Alliance and Harvard Library this week announced a project to sustain and deepen capacity for the digitization, discovery, and preservation of African American history collections held in HBCU libraries and archives. Harvard’s support for the HBCU Library Alliance’s ongoing work is a step in addressing […]

UPDATED POST: A Tip Sheet for Librarians Facing Harassment (via PEN America) This guidance is intended to equip librarians with strategies to navigate online abuse. While this resource acknowledges the ways that online abuse can move offline, it is primarily focused on digital safety. For a discussion of physical safety in libraries, see: “We Need […]

The ABA Journal is read by half of the nation's 1 million lawyers every month. It covers the trends, people and finances of the legal profession from Wall Street to Main Street to Pennsylvania Avenue.

From The Chicago Tribune: Last week, city and Chicago Public Library officials declared Chicago a sanctuary city for those stories, by establishing “Book Sanctuaries” across the city’s 77 distinct community areas and 81 library branches. That entails a commitment to expand local access to banned or challenged books through library programming. [Clip] Chicago Public Library […]

A document viewed by 404 Media describes ICE's plans to incorporate data from the Department of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) into a tool called ATrac.