On Jan. 2, 2026, House Bill 26, which would prohibit book banning at public libraries, was formally introduced in New Mexico’s 57th Legislature by Rep. Kathleen Cates.
The bill’s primary purpose is to ensure that “any public library operated or funded by the state, a county or municipality shall not prohibit, exclude or remove material from the library’s collection or other library resources on the basis of partisan or doctrinal disapproval of the material’s content…or the intended audience’s or the author’s or creator’s race, nationality, religion, sex or gender, sexual orientation or characteristics otherwise protected from unlawful discriminatory practices in public”.
Any library found to be in violation of these standards would no longer be eligible for state funding.
In a second proposal, a Senate bill focused on public school libraries and sponsored by Sen. Sedillo Lopez, would make it more difficult for New Mexico parents and community members to challenge anyage-inappropriate materials in public school libraries. Under the bill, only parents with children enrolled in public schools would be allowed to challenge school materials, excluding other taxpayer community members from this process.
Parents and community members have raised concerns regarding these two bills, and their implications for taxpayer oversight, public participation for community members and parents, and institutional accountability involving what some describe as “obscene” content in publicly funded libraries, particularly in public schools. In the past, parents and community members voicing these concerns have been labeled “book banners”.
Several New Mexican coalition groups – including Freedom to Read New Mexico, Grandparents and Allies for Truth, and the Albuquerque Teachers Federation – have expressed support for the bills sponsored by Cates and Sedillo Lopez’s bills.
In response, Sen. Anthony Thorton has pre-filed legislation that would establish book standards in public school libraries through an “age-appropriate filtering and evaluation” process. The proposal is structured as a three-year pilot project intended to “increase parent engagement and preserve trust between parents and public schools and school district while protecting intellectual freedom and academic integrity.”
Thorton’s bill will be modeled on universal rating systems used for other forms of media, including movies, TV shows, and video games.
