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 Vermont, 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 educational materials and the protection against government-imposed censorship. Federal courts have generally held that school boards can regulate classroom curricula to exclude texts they find objectively vulgar. However, they cannot ban books based on subjective disagreement with the book's subject matter, such as themes of witchcraft or LGBTQ+ relationships, as this could infringe on First Amendment rights. A recent federal court ruling clarified that 'book banning' refers to the act of a government or its officials prohibiting access to a book. This is distinct from a school board's decision not to purchase or retain a book in a school's library, which falls within the school board's discretion to manage educational resources. In Vermont, as elsewhere, the school board has the authority to decide which books to acquire and maintain in school libraries, provided that their decisions do not amount to unconstitutional censorship.