Booksellers Warn NSPM-7 Could Criminalize the Book Trade

Nine independent bookstores have sent an open letter to the American Booksellers Association and the American Booksellers for Free Expression raising what they call an "urgent concern" about the Trump administration's NSPM-7 memorandum. Their warning is direct: the book trade itself could become a target of prosecution.

"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 signatories are Firestorm Books in Asheville, NC; Autumn Leaves Books in Ithaca, NY; Boneshaker Books and Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis, MN; Burning Books in Buffalo, NY; Charis Books & More in Decatur, GA; Pilsen Community Books in Chicago, IL; and Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria in New York, NY.

"Bullies thrive in an environment of silence and isolation," the letter continues. It urges the national bookselling organizations to take stronger, more public stances against attempts to criminalize free speech.

The memorandum

The letter targets National Security Presidential Memorandum-7, titled "Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence," issued on September 25, 2025 in the wake of Charlie Kirk's murder. The memo gathers unrelated incidents of political violence, protest, and activism under a single, hazily defined umbrella of surging left-wing violence, claiming they represent "a culmination of sophisticated, organized campaigns" by "domestic terrorists to wage a violent assault against democratic institutions, constitutional rights, and fundamental American liberties." The memo presents no evidence of who is coordinating this alleged campaign, how, or why.

The memorandum defines common threads of this conduct as "anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality." Phrases like "traditional American views on family" are so vague, the booksellers argue, that the state can define nearly any speech, conduct, or thought as a national security threat.

The Prairieland case

The concern is not abstract. Nine protesters who demonstrated on July 4, 2025 outside the Prairieland ICE detention facility in Texas have already been prosecuted under this framework. As The Guardian reported, "a jury found eight of nine protesters guilty of 'providing material support to terrorists'" — and this "material support," the federal government argued, "included owning a 'printing press' used to print anarchist zines and being part of a leftist book club."

That printing press was an office printer, a paper cutter, and book binding materials. The Guardian also noted that the government's focus on "the possession of leftwing literature, including zines, and other basic security measures common in our modern era – like owning Faraday bags, meant to block wireless signals to prevent surveillance; using the encrypted messaging app Signal; or dressing in all-black clothing – is alarming to activists."

The sentences handed down range from 30 to 100 years in prison — effectively life terms.

Grace Byron, writing for The Nation, interviewed Autumn Hill, one of the Prairieland protesters, who received a 50-year sentence — longer, Byron notes, than some January 6th rioters received. Hill is a trans woman currently held in a men's prison. In the interview she articulates a politics of care rather than the violent rhetoric the administration warns of: "My whole life is driven by this radical love and by this urgent need to see justice done."

What the booksellers want

The signatories argue that bookstores are a natural next target. "We believe that if unchecked," the letter says, "this administration could bring similar charges against ABA members under NSPM-7's stunningly broad definition of 'antifa extremism.'"

They call on the ABFE and ABA to examine "the Prairieland case, its relationship to NSPM-7, and the implications for bookstores and our customers," and to address the attacks "publicly." They ask that "the ABA should communicate its intention to defend members from prosecution."

The letter closes a historical circle that the booksellers and their allies are keen to draw: the United States was founded on radical ideas distributed through short, cheap publications. Howard Zinn's Artists in Times of War, cited by the letter's supporters, defends precisely that tradition of American radical pamphleteering — zines and pamphlets as an essential national form.

Whether the ABA and ABFE answer the letter's call will shape how the country's independent bookstores position themselves as NSPM-7's enforcement expands beyond the Prairieland defendants.