The U.S. Supreme Court in a free speech case on Monday opted not to hear an appeal by a group of residents of a rural Texas county of a judicial decision allowing local officials to remove 17 books that these officials deemed objectionable from public libraries.

The justices let stand a lower court’s decision allowing the removal of books including ones dealing with themes of race and LGBT identity, from its public library system. The lower court rejected the argument made by the plaintiffs that removing the books was unlawful under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protections against government abridgment of free speech.

The decision by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals applies to the states of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi but does not set a nationwide legal precedent.

There has been a surge in book banning in public schools and public libraries in recent years in many locations around the United States, driven by conservative groups and new state laws limiting what kinds of books children can access.

Llano County is a rural area about 80 miles (130 km) from the Texas state capital Austin. The dispute began in 2021 when one faction of local residents asked the Llano County library commissioner to remove the disputed books, which covered topics including transgender issues, race and slavery in the United States, puberty, and bodily functions like flatulence.

The 17 works at issue include the 1970 book “In the Night Kitchen” by acclaimed author Maurice Sendak due to the depiction of its main character, a boy named Mickey, as nude in some of its illustrations as he visits a surreal kitchen in a dream.

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