Oklahoma Supreme Court rejects state education board's authority over public school libraries

EDMOND, Okla. (AP) — Local school boards in Oklahoma will retain the right to determine what books are available in public school libraries after the state Supreme Court shut down efforts to shift that discretion to the state Board of Education.

"The state Board of Education is attempting to exercise unauthorized quasi-judicial authority in enforcement proceedings before the board," Justice James E. Edmondson wrote in the unanimous ruling Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by Edmond Public Schools.

"State statutes give a local school board power and a type of statutory discretion to supply books for...