First court decision under landmark state law affirms protections for students’ freedom to read following powerful community-led advocacy

On Thursday, October 22, the Harford County Circuit Court will hear arguments from the local Harford County Board of Education asking the court to overturn a decision made by the Maryland State Board of Education. The controversy over Harford Board efforts to bar the book from school libraries marks the first time any court will interpret Maryland’s “Freedom to Read Act,” a state law enacted by the Maryland General Assembly in 2024 to combat a proliferation of book bans across the country, including in Maryland.

This lawsuit is an attempt to shield federal agents from the same standards we expect of every other officer who serves our communities. We stand with Maryland and local leaders who are working to keep our communities safe, informed, and free from fear.

The preliminary injunction requested in the lawsuit would prohibit ICE from continuing this practice during the litigation. The case is co-counseled by the National Immigration Project, the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, and the ACLU of Maryland.

We are alarmed by video and eyewitness accounts describing federal agents using excessive force against people engaged in nonviolent protest, and using vehicles as battering rams to disperse community members who had gathered to lawfully observe and document ICE’s presence.

The new book policy was enacted by the Somerset Board on August 18, but at the request of MSEA was immediately paused by Maryland State School Superintendent Wright to give the State Board time to review the policy’s legality.

Report confirms decades-long pattern of systemic and institutional failures that led to preventable and unnecessarily deadly police encounters.

Local community organizations and officials submitted a formal comment to DHS in response to a “scoping notice” indicating DHS plans to move forward with converting a warehouse meant for cargo into a massive immigrant internment facility and human warehouse in Western Maryland.

The ruling is the ninth rejection by courts of the DOJ’s nationwide campaign to obtain states’ voter registration databases, including voters’ dates of birth, residential addresses, driver’s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers.