united-states first-amendment us-federal-government
US Federal Laws Pertaining to Banned Books
<p>I've been having trouble with my search for federally banned books.  Many searches show books which are banned in local libraries or by the state, but not nationally. The only book I could find that is still banned nationally is "<em>The Political Mafia</em>" by Irwin Schiff. Is there any resources to find out what publications are banned nationally? Also, what is the criteria necessary for the federal government to ban a publication?</p>

<p>The United States has a very liberal attitude when it comes to free speech. Short of  materials that are: child pornography, restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), Libelous/Fraudulent, encourage or aid others in breaking the law, or seditious/treasonous/ terroistic/other credible threats there is almost nothing that can't be published. There is another example where supposedly <a href="http://bbark.deepforestproductions.com/column/2013/07/07/banned-books-awareness-the-golden-book-of-chemistry-experiments/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments</a> was banned by the US Government, but I cannot find any evidence or action against the author to support the claim.</p>

<p><em>The Political Mofia</em> by Schiff was not neccessarily banned, but an injunction from publishing was issued against the authors in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=11776545211757471117&amp;q=Irwin%20Schiff&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=6,33" rel="nofollow noreferrer">US v. Schiff, 379 F. 3d 621 - Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit 2004</a> per <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/7408" rel="nofollow noreferrer">26 U.S.C. 7408</a> on grounds that the books was fraudulent.</p>

<p>Essentially it is the Federal courts that can ban a book from commerce with cause. Schools, libraries and other institutions may ban it from their collections, but not from public commerce. Wikipedia has a list of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_governments" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Books banned by governments</a> that you may want to look at to find examples.</p>
