A Maryland Judge Puts Flamer Back on the Library Shelf

Judge Yolanda L. Curtin of the Harford County Circuit Court ruled from the bench on Thursday that the county school board acted unlawfully when it pulled Mike Curato's graphic novel Flamer from school library shelves in June 2025. The decision leaves standing the Maryland State Board of Education's November 2025 reversal of that removal, and returns the book to circulation.

The case is the first significant test of Maryland's Freedom to Read Act, the 2024 statute barring school systems from removing library material because of partisan, ideological or religious disapproval. The state board had found the local board fell short of that standard, noting that nothing in the record suggested its members read the book beyond selected passages.

Curtin reviewed the state board's decision for arbitrariness rather than writing on a blank slate, and found no fault with it. Reporting on the ruling describes her as holding that the removal violated both the statute and the First Amendment.

What makes this worth watching is less the book than the standard. A state statutory floor, enforced in state court, operates independently of the federal case law now splintering across the circuits. Districts in states with comparable read-freely statutes have a decision to reckon with.