A Ban By Any Other Name: Federal Court Issues Injunction Against Denying Books to Prisoners

A simple misunderstanding or a book ban? That's the issue at the heart of a filing by a prisoner in Louisiana who claimed he'd been denied access to reading material. Thomas Normand, on behalf of himself and two other prisoners, petitioned the court for a preliminary injunction to allow them the right to receive books.

Citing prison regulations, the warden of the facility where the men are incarcerated forbade them from having books shipped to them. A federal court agreed on February 19, 2025, that their First Amendment rights were being violated and issued a preliminary injunction.

Return to Sender

Thomas Normand is an inmate at the Tensas Parish Detention Center (TPDC) in Louisiana. He's supposed to be in a state correctional facility, but due to overcrowding, he's been in TPDC since 2020.

After allegedly seeking access to reading materials by making requests both verbal and written for four years without success, Normand filed a lawsuit in federal court on December 13, 2024. He was joined by fellow prisoners Dedric Mitchell and Evan Hall as plaintiffs.

As one of the named defendants, Warden Nolan Bass claimed the blanket policy on not allowing books to be sent to the prison is a policy of TPDC. Citing the chance of the books being used to smuggle in liquid drugs and other illegal substances, he argued that the policy was necessary because TPDC didn't have the manpower to check every page in every book.

After first stating that TPDC had no provision in place to allow prisoners to request reading materials sent from outside sources, Bass later corrected himself and said that this was permitted. Under the TPDC books and publication policy, prisoners could request permission to subscribe to publications that don't pose any security concerns.

Approval is up to the warden. Publications that don't involve drugs, hate, racism, or sex are eligible. Bass also noted that TPDC received donated books from local libraries that were available through the prison library system.

In the suit, Normand claimed that his First Amendment right to access information was being violated by TPDC's policies, which amounted to a book ban. The plaintiffs were unaware of the ability to request approval for publications through the warden and insisted that their previous pleas for books had gone either unheeded or ignored.

The plaintiffs alleged that the prison library was not a functional one. The inmates have no access to the library and there's no system in place through which to check books out.

After learning of the TPDC's policy regarding publications, Normand amended his suit. He requested that TPDC's book request program mirror their publication program and allow books to be received directly from the publisher or other approved vendors. The suit asked the court to rule TPDC's system as a book ban and block it.

The defendants contended that their policy was constitutional as is and chose to let the court decide.

There Is No Friend as Loyal as a Book

U.S. District Judge Jerry Edwards Jr. granted the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction. Judge Edwards ruled that Normand had met the burden for obtaining a preliminary injunction, including that he was likely to succeed on the merits and that a failure to grant could cause irreparable injury.

According to Judge Edwards, while the prison has a neutral and rational interest in preventing contraband from entering the facility, in reality the prison's policy was a ban on reading materials altogether. Judge Edwards pointed to the evidence provided that Normand could not access the prison's reading library, and requests through the prison system were unsuccessful for years.

Reading can offer entertainment, education, and distraction. Reading books can help inmates understand their rights, but they can also provide the only real kind of escape available. Most importantly for the court, constitutional rights don't cease to exist for inmates, at least if those rights are "not inconsistent with his status as a prisoner."

Related Resources

• What Is FOIA and How Does It Work? (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)
• Banning Books and the Law (FindLaw's Education Law)
• Prisoners' Rights (FindLaw's Civil Rights Law)