This presentation looks at current books bans and censorship laws and provides a brief primer on your rights as a librarian under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, federal anti-discrimination and retaliation laws, and other federal and state laws that might benefit you in opposing suppression.
About Iris Halpern
Iris Halpern is a partner at Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC, a well-known civil rights law firm in Denver, Colorado. Before joining Rathod Mohamedbhai, Iris was an Acting Supervisory Attorney and Senior Trial Attorney at the Denver Field Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She advocates forcefully against all forms of discrimination. oppression, and other workplace abuses. Most recently, she can be found fighting back against discriminatory censorship and book bans by representing librarians across the country who have been terminated for refusing to remove or restrict access to books written with queer or racial themes and by LGBTQ+ authors and authors of color. Her Colorado case recently settled in a groundbreaking resolution after the state first recognized the salience of advocacy and associational discrimination and retaliation claims in the context of opposition to discriminatory censorship. In addition to her legal endeavors, Iris is active in the community, sitting on a number of non-profit boards that advocate for equality, challenge wage theft, and agitate for positive legislative change. She lectures widely on employment law topics, including recently teaching as an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado's and Denver University's law schools.