Miss. libraries ban Stewart's satirical bestseller
Librarians upset about naked Supreme Court judges

The Associated Press
Updated: 9:52 a.m. ET Jan. 10, 2005
LINK

GULFPORT, Miss. - Library officials in two southern Mississippi counties have banned Jon Stewart’s best-selling “America (The Book)” over the satirical textbook’s nude depictions of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices.

“I’ve been a librarian for 40 years and this is the only book I’ve objected to so strongly that I wouldn’t allow it to circulate,” said Robert Willits, director of the Jackson-George Regional Library System of eight libraries in Jackson and George counties.

“We’re not an adult bookstore. Our entire collection is open to the entire public,” Willits said. “If they had published the book without that one picture, that one page, we’d have the book.”

Wal-Mart has declined to stock the book because of the page, which features the faces of the nine Supreme Court justices superimposed over naked bodies. The facing page has cutouts of the justices’ robes, complete with a caption asking readers to “restore their dignity by matching each justice with his or her respective robe.”

The book by Stewart and the writers of “The Daily Show,” the Comedy Central fake-news program he hosts, was released in September. It has spent 15 weeks on The New York Times best seller list for hardcover nonfiction, and was named Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, the industry trade magazine.

Former English teacher Tara Skelton of Ocean Springs said the libraries shouldn’t decide what is in poor taste.

“It just really seemed kind of silly to me,” she said. “I don’t think the Supreme Court justices have filed any defamation of character or libel suits. It’s humor.”

Well, if the naked pictures are the justices' REAL bodies, maybe they have a point...Thomas and Scalia naked? Not a pretty picture. :D J/K. Censorship is unAmerican, and that is ridiculous. I just may buy this book now...I want to see naked justices! :D Oh, and do these Librarians realize it was Scalia I believe who talked about orgies being good? Sometimes you just have to shake your head.

I wonder how many libraries are actually carrying the book?

“If they had published the book without that one picture, that one page, we’d have the book." <_<

Right.

I suspect quite a few libraries would carry it, since it's a bestseller.

Having read the book, and seen those pictures, I must say it was one of the best Christmas presents I ever got... Thank God it revived my decimated sense of humor and saved me from the bottomless pit of grief and despair... John Stewart... you may have saved my life. How's that for a review?

Thank God for e-commerce. We should call it free-commerce.

I just started the book over the weekend, and I think it's a hoot. I guess those Mississippi librarians are lacking a sense of humor.

They definetely are! I specially enjoyed the "Guide to Other Countries"... Oops I hope I didn't anticipate anything beforehand.

I think saying this is censorship is going a bit too far. This is just some schmoe who thinks anything with nudity in it is wrong for a library to carry.

The book is hilarious though. Their loss.

Fake naked pictures of supreme court judges< Kind of offensive. Funny I must say, but Its a bit to funny for the library.

I just heard about this - this is ridiculous.

Do they ban other types of books in Mississippi?

They unbanned it.