L.C. 9.3 - The Right to Read Act

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

The Right to Read Act
To Ban Banning Books

1. All locations except for schools, outlined by section 3, owned by the region of Lincoln shall not ban books.
2. No person shall be discriminated or fired because they have read a certain book.
3. Schools may ban books because of adult content
4. This act will take place immediately after the Governor signs it.

Sponsor: Ishan
Occupying: Opposition Slot 2 of 2

Sponsor, please advocate for your bill.

[Continential]

So, basically, what this bill does, is makes sure that all locations owned by the region of Lincoln may not ban books.

[S019]

Does this include elementary schools, because then they'd be allowed to have books with adult content?

[Continential]

To address some of the concerns by the Chancellor, I have proposed a amendment

The Right to Read Act
To Ban Banning Books

1. All locations except for schools, outlined by Section 3, owned by the region of Lincoln shall not ban books.
2. No person shall be discriminated or fired because they have read a certain book.
3. Schools may ban books because of adult content
34. This act will take place immediately after the Governor signs it.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

So what constitutes "adult content"? I mean, we can obviously agree that pornography doesn't belong in schools--but what about murder mysteries? Or horror content? Or witchcraft? Or generally anti-theist or overly political works? Who decides where the line is drawn?

[S019]

This is still unworkable, moving to table

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Hearing no Objection, the amendment is adopted.

The Speaker does not recognize S019 for his motion as it requires consent to consider and the Speaker would Object to such a consent request.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Proposing this amendment:

The Right to Read Act
To Ban Banning Books

1. All locations except for schools, outlined by Section 3, owned by the region of Lincoln shall not ban books.
2. No person shall be discriminated or fired because they have read a certain book.
3. Schools may ban books because of adult sexual or other emotionally disturbing content, as determined by a school board or principal. However books may not be banned because of political or religious content.
4. This act will take place immediately after the Governor signs it.

If the amendment is adopted I will vote for the bill.

[S019]

This amendment actually opens up a serious rabbit hole, upon reading its text, I'm getting the sense that schools could be allowed to teach the Bible or other Christian texts to non-Christians and a similar concept for other religions, as a religious minority, this amendment is deeply troubling and needs to be fixed. Consider this as an objection.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

The question is on the amendment offered by the Speaker. Please cast your votes.

AYE

[Continential]

The Amendment is friendly.

I will vote Aye on the Amendment.

[S019]

NAY

[Brother Jonathan]

Nay

[Elcaspar]

Nay

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

The amendment is rejected 2-3.

I want to get to Yes on the bill but in its current form it is too broad.
These concerns are legitimate:

So what constitutes "adult content"? I mean, we can obviously agree that pornography doesn't belong in schools--but what about murder mysteries? Or horror content? Or witchcraft? Or generally anti-theist or overly political works? Who decides where the line is drawn?

If people have other amendments I welcome their offering.

[Continential]

To try to address the Chancellor's concerns about the amendment, I'll propose this to add on to the Speaker's Amendment

The Right to Read Act
To Ban Banning Books

1. All locations except for schools, outlined by Section 3, owned by the region of Lincoln shall not ban books.
2. No person shall be discriminated or fired because they have read a certain book.
3. Schools may ban books because of adult sexual or other emotionally disturbing content, as determined by a school board or principal. However books may not be banned because of political or religious content unless the parents object to their children seeing political or religious content.
4. This act will take place immediately after the Governor signs it.

[S019]

Wait, so a single parent has a right to ban a book for the entire school, that isn't right. It's time for us to admit that this is poorly written, can't be fixed, and should be voted down.

[Continential]

Wait, so a single parent has a right to ban a book for the entire school, that isn't right. It's time for us to admit that this is poorly written, can't be fixed, and should be voted down.

I’m going to withdraw the amendment and withdraw the bill because I don’t believe any solutions can be accomplished and the original product is horrible.

I should resign because I’m horrible at billwriting and likely a waste of space in the council

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Is there objection to this bill being withdrawn?

[Former President tack50]

Skipping over the fact that the bill is probably not all that well written, shouldn't this already be covered by the freedom of speech and freedom of the press clauses of the Lincoln and federal constitutions?

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Skipping over the fact that the bill is probably not all that well written, shouldn't this already be covered by the freedom of speech and freedom of the press clauses of the Lincoln and federal constitutions?

Hmm, hard to say. You obviously have a right to write your book, but do you have a right to force a school to buy or allow it? Seems a bit murky.

This would provide an explicit requirement for a school to allow X. It is a good idea in theory, however its poor construction has forced me to oppose it.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

No Objection arising, the bill is withdrawn.