Ban the ban: Illinois’ Giannoulias pushes landmark legislation

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias has spearheaded a law that made his state the first in the U.S. to effectively ban book bans.

Illinos Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the measure into law Monday. As the Chicago Sun-Times report, the law "will block state grant funding to public libraries and schools that don't adhere to the American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights, a set of rules that says reading materials shouldn't be removed or restricted due to 'partisan or personal disapproval.'

Book bans have been all the rage in several conservative-led states, such as Florida, where Ron DeSantis, a candidate for the Republican nomination for the presidency is governor.

Started as a movement to keep certain books related to gender identity from being read by very young school kids, the book bans have expanded way beyond that, removing books by...