In a move that highlights growing anxieties over the intersection of national security policy and the First Amendment, a coalition of independent booksellers has issued a formal open letter to the American Booksellers Association (ABA) and the American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE). The letter sounds an "urgent concern" regarding the Trump administration’s National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7), a federal directive that the booksellers argue effectively criminalizes the distribution of leftist ideas, zines, and anti-fascist publications.
The letter, authored and signed by a geographically diverse group of prominent independent bookstores, characterizes the memorandum as a direct assault on the freedom of expression. The signatories include Firestorm Books of Asheville, North Carolina; Autumn Leaves Books of Ithaca, New York; Boneshaker Books and Moon Palace Books of Minneapolis, Minnesota; Burning Books of Buffalo, New York; Charis Books & More of Decatur, Georgia; Pilsen Community Books in Chicago, Illinois; and Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria in New York, New York.
The coalition argues that the current political climate requires more than just the traditional opposition to local book bans or school board challenges. Instead, they are calling for a national mobilization against what they describe as the potential criminalization of the entire bookselling industry. "As we continue opposing book bans and other legislative challenges," the letter states, "we must also prepare for the potential criminalization of those in our industry."
The central focus of the booksellers’ alarm is NSPM-7, titled "Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence." Issued on September 25, 2025, the memorandum arrived in the volatile aftermath of the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Critics of the memo, including the letter’s signatories, describe it as a "naked attack on freedom of expression and freedom of thought," suggesting that the administration is using the rhetoric of national security to suppress political dissent.
The memorandum attempts to construct a legal framework that links a wide variety of unrelated incidents of protest, activism, and political violence under a single, broad umbrella of "surging left-wing violence." According to the document, these incidents are not isolated but are rather the "culmination of sophisticated, organized campaigns" orchestrated by "domestic terrorists" seeking to "wage a violent assault against democratic institutions, constitutional rights, and fundamental American liberties."
However, the open letter points out a glaring lack of evidence within the memorandum to support these claims of a coordinated, national conspiracy. The signatories argue that the document fails to identify who is coordinating these campaigns or how they are being funded and executed. Instead, the memo relies on a sprawling and intentionally vague definition of "anti-fascism," which the administration explicitly equates with "anti-Americanism."
According to the text of NSPM-7, the "common threads" that animate this alleged violent conduct include "anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity." The memo further targets "extremism on migration, race, and gender," as well as "hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality."
