Virginia judge shuts down demand to ban book sales to minors

A Virginia judge has dismissed an unusual case that could have banned selling two books to children in the state. Following a hearing on Tuesday, Virginia Beach Circuit Court Judge Pamela Baskervill found that Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir and Sarah Maas’ A Court of Mist and Fury failed to meet the standard for obscenity under Virginia law — and, more consequentially, that the obscenity law itself was unconstitutional.

Republican State Delegate Tim Anderson and former congressional candidate Tommy Altman instigated the dispute earlier this year, exploiting a little-used rule that allows anyone to launch obscenity proceedings in the state. Altman and Anderson objected to what they characterized as sexually explicit material in both...

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