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Supreme Court's ruling practically wipes out free speech for sex writing online

(ellsberg.substack.com)
693 points macawfish | 4 comments | 12 Jul 25 18:14 UTC | HN request time: 0.419s | source
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gs17 ◴[12 Jul 25 18:55 UTC] No.44544167[source]▶
> The public library in rural Donnelly, Idaho, at only 1,024 square feet, had no practical way to create an enforceable “adults only” section and no budget to defend against lawsuits. Therefore, to comply with the law, they decided to make the entire library for adults only. The library has banned minors from entering the library (even to use the bathroom) unless they are accompanied by an adult, or holding a waiver from their parents.

This is absurd. It does look like they're suing, with help from a lot of publishers, at least.

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ndriscoll[dead post] ◴[12 Jul 25 19:14 UTC] No.44544321[source]▶
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1. yardie ◴[12 Jul 25 19:25 UTC] No.44544427[source]▶
An ADA compliant bathroom is almost 200sqft. And they will need at least 2 of them. So now that 1000sqft is now 600sqft. And they still need a place to store and process books, reading rooms, etc.
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2. arp242 ◴[12 Jul 25 19:29 UTC] No.44544458[source]▶
Also there's a big difference between a general "children's room" and strictly enforced "adults only" and "for children" section, with risk of costly lawsuits if some extremist parent thinks the kid saw something "obscene". My library had a children's section and even some toys, but I could walk in and go anywhere.

Since I'm not American I don't have a good idea of what 1024 sq feet is: it's about 95m². I laughed out loud when I realised just how small it is. To suggest this is large enough for a strictly separated adult and children section is profoundly unserious.

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3. ndriscoll ◴[12 Jul 25 20:40 UTC] No.44544986[source]▶
> The ADA Standards, on the other hand, do not address the number of toilet rooms or fixtures required for a facility, but instead specify which ones must be accessible where provided.

https://www.access-board.gov/ada/guides/chapter-6-toilet-roo...

For what it's worth, chatgpt and random reddit comments claim you'd need closer to 50sqft for a compliant bathroom. Maybe that's nonsense.

In any case, their Facebook page is full of recent pictures of children in the library, so it seems that they were indeed unsurprisingly just posturing.

4. ndriscoll ◴[13 Jul 25 01:16 UTC] No.44546659[source]▶
I've lived in several houses that had 2 bedrooms, a bathroom (with tub/shower), a kitchen, and laundry closet that were 8-900 sq ft, so to me it seems profoundly unserious to suggest you can't fit a small adult only room (think more like a walk in closet) in that space.

Ignoring that, they don't even need a room. They just can't let kids access it. A locked armoire near the checkout ought to suffice.