First Amendment litigation involving book censorship in schools has usually turned on the rights of a school board to control classroom curricula by prohibiting the use of certain texts, and an inquiry into whether a certain challenged text is vulgar. Some federal courts have distinguished between objective vulgarity—which a school board may prohibit—and the subject matter of a book (witchcraft, lesbian romance) with which the school board members may personally disagree or have a distaste for—and which a school board may not prohibit.

But one federal court recently stated that book banning takes place when a government or its officials forbid or prohibit others from having a book. The term does not apply where a school district—through its authorized school board—decides not to continue possessing the book on its own library shelves. The school board is the entity that has the ultimate authority to decide what books will be purchased and kept on the shelves of the schools in the district—and the school board can decide not to purchase and shelve a book in the first place.

In Oklahoma, as in other states, First Amendment litigation related to book censorship in schools often hinges on the balance between a school board's authority to determine classroom curricula and the prohibition of certain texts, against the rights of individuals to access diverse ideas and information. Federal courts have generally held that while school boards can restrict materials deemed objectively vulgar, they cannot remove books from school libraries or curricula simply because they personally disagree with the content, such as themes of witchcraft or LGBTQ+ relationships. However, a recent federal court ruling clarified that the term 'book banning' specifically refers to the act of forbidding possession of a book. It does not apply when a school board, exercising its legitimate authority, chooses not to purchase or retain a book in the school's library. This means that while outright prohibition is not permissible, school boards in Oklahoma retain the discretion to make decisions about what books to acquire and maintain in school libraries.