New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, signed a bill into law on Monday to prohibit public libraries and school libraries from banning books in the state.

The law will also implement protections for librarians who follow the law against civil and criminal charges, according to The Associated Press.

This makes New Jersey the latest state to enact a law prohibiting book bans, joining other Democrat-led states, including Illinois and Minnesota.

Murphy signed the bill at Princeton's public library, located near Princeton University. The legislation comes in response to Republican-leaning states that have looked to remove books in recent years from school curriculum and school libraries that they deem inappropriate for young children, such as books containing sexually explicit material or that center on LGBTQ+ or Critical Race Theory.

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"It's the antithesis of all these book banning states that you see," the governor said. "I'm incredibly proud to have signed it, but also acknowledge that America — and this is yet another good example — is becoming a patchwork quilt country. It really matters where you live."

Under the law, public libraries and school libraries may not exclude books because of the origin, background or views of the material or of its authors. Libraries will also be prohibited from censoring books solely because a person finds them offensive.

The bill allows books to be restricted in the case of "developmentally inappropriate material" for certain age groups. The law also requires local school boards and the governing bodies of public libraries to establish policies for book curation and the removal of library materials, including a way to address concerns over certain titles.

Lawmakers in more than 15 states have proposed bills this year to impose harsh penalties on libraries or librarians.

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Conservative parents and activists argue that the books are too sexually explicit or otherwise inappropriate, particularly for younger children. National groups such as Moms for Liberty have said parents should have more of a say over which books ought to be available to their children.

Librarians praised the enactment of New Jersey's law, with Karen Grant, president of the New Jersey Association of School Librarians, saying the bill recognizes librarians' professionalism and promotes libraries as a source of information.

"The bill will protect the intellectual freedom of students as well as acknowledge that school libraries are centers for voluntary inquiry, fostering students’ growth and development," Grant said.

Retired librarian Martha Hickson spoke on Monday alongside the governor about how parents first suggested her book collections contained pedophilia and pornography during a school board meeting in 2021. She watched the livestream in shock as they objected to the availability of the novel "Lawn Boy" by Jonathan Evison, which contains graphic descriptions of sex between men and children, and the illustrated memoir "Gender Queer: A Memoir" by Maia Kobabe.

Hickson, who said parents suggested she should be criminally liable for the availability of the books, said Monday that it was time to celebrate after three years of harassment.

"I'm thrilled," she said. "After more than three years of harassment, this legislation is a relief to readers and librarians."

The law is set to take effect in a year, although the state education commissioner and state librarian may begin taking steps to implement the law.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

An apparent swatting call at the north Georgia home of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., left a woman dead following a car accident involving local police.

Greene took to social media on Monday to report that she was the subject of a bomb threat directed at her home. The congresswoman said the Rome Police Department’s assistant chief received the threat via email, prompting a bomb squad to be dispatched to her home.

Greene says that this is not the first time she has been the subject of a swatting call since being elected to Congress, noting that she has been "swatted at least nine times." 

A swatting call involves alerting 911 of a false threat to a specific location or person, which invokes a police response and can divert resources from real crimes or threats.

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Greene said the email was traced back to a Russian IP address and her office will be working with local and federal law enforcement, including the FBI, to bring the perpetrator to justice.

Rome police reported that during the attempt to respond to Greene's home, a deadly traffic incident took place involving one of their officers.

"On Monday December 9, a Rome Police Department officer was traveling in a personal vehicle en route to take his place with the Bomb Squad on a call.  This officer was involved in a traffic accident on Redmond Rd near Walmart which has created significant travel delays around the Norfolk Southern Railroad Tracks."

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Greene said she was "heartsick" over the deadly accident, which she said claimed the life of a woman and injured a police officer.

"I’m heartsick right now. I was just informed that an innocent woman died today in an auto accident involving a member of the Rome Police bomb squad who was responding to the threat at my home," she wrote. 

"These violent political threats have fatal consequences. It’s an undue strain on our law enforcement who must treat them seriously. The officer was responding to protect my life. And now, a woman has lost her life because of this despicable act," the post said. "My prayers are with Tammie Pickelsimer, her family, the officer who was injured, and the entire Rome Police Department."

Greene was noticeably outraged throughout her updates, accusing the perpetrator of the call of committing murder.

"I’m sick to my stomach, but I’m also angry. This should have never happened and I pray it never happens again," she said.

She went on to thank Rome PD for protecting the city and putting their lives at stake.

The cause of the accident is still under investigation. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to Rome police for comment.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, praised women in the military as some of the "greatest warriors" after critics took issue with comments he made about women not being fit to serve in combat roles. 

"I also want an opportunity here to clarify comments that have been misconstrued, that I somehow don't support women in the military, some of our greatest warriors, our best warriors out there are women," he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday. 

Female service members "love our nation, want to defend that flag, and they do it every single day around the globe. I'm not presuming anything," he added. 

"But after President Trump asked me to be his Secretary of Defense, should I get the opportunity to do that, I look forward to being a secretary for all our warriors, men and women, for the amazing contributions they make in our military."

Hegseth will spend this week meeting with senators on Capitol Hill to court the 50 votes he needs to secure the Cabinet level position. 

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In a November 7 episode of the Shawn Ryan podcast, which aired mere days before Hegseth, a former Fox News employee, was tapped to serve as Defense Secretary, the nominee said: "I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles."

Hegseth asserted that women serving in combat roles "hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal" and "has made fighting more complicated."

Hegseth noted that he was not necessarily advocating for making the change right now, commenting; "Imagine the demagoguery in Washington, D.C., if you were actually making the case for, you know, ‘We should scale back women in combat.’"

"As the disclaimer for everybody out there," he added, "we’ve all served with women and they’re great, it’s just our institutions don’t have to incentivize that in places where … over human history, men are more capable."

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He said, "I love women service members who contribute amazingly," but asserted that "everything about women serving together makes the situation more complicated and complication in combat means casualties are worse."

He also criticized the upper echelons of military leadership for changing standards and prioritizing filling diversity quotas above combat effectiveness. He pointed to a 2015 study by the Marine Corps that found that integrated male-female units did "drastically worse" in terms of combat effectiveness than all-male units.

"Between bone density and lung capacity and muscle strength, men and women are just different," he said. "So, I’m ok with if you maintain the standards just where they are for everybody, and if there’s some, you know, hard-charging female that meets that standard, great, cool, join the infantry battalion. But that is not what’s happened. What has happened is the standards have lowered."

President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, celebrated that he had a "great meeting" with Sen. Joni Ernst after the Iowa Republican slow-walked an endorsement of the Cabinet nominee. 

"It was a great meeting. People don't really know this. I've known Sen. Ernst for over 10 years. I knew her when she was a state senator running to be the first female combat veteran," Hegseth told Fox News' Sean Hannity in an exclusive interview Monday evening. "And we supported her in that effort, and have continued to."

"You get into these meetings and you to listen to senators –  it's an amazing advise and consent process -- and you hear how thoughtful, serious, substantive they are on these key issues that pertain to our Defense Department," he continued. "And Joni Ernst is front and center on that. So to able to have phone calls and meetings time and time again to talk over the issues is really, really important. The fact that she's willing to support me through this process means a lot."

AFTER SECOND MEETING WITH HEGSETH, ERNST HINTS AT WHETHER SHE WILL OR WON'T SUPPORT CONFIRMATION

Hegseth has been spending his days on Capitol Hill meeting with Republican senators to rally support as he battles allegations of sexual misconduct, excessive drinking and mismanaging a veterans nonprofit organization. Hegseth has denied the allegations and vowed that he won't drink "a drop of alcohol" if confirmed to Trump's cabinet.

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Among Hegseth's meetings on Monday, he again met with Ernst, who sits on the ​​Senate Armed Services Committee, after meeting with her last week. 

Last week, Ernst withheld committing to voting in favor of Hegseth, but hinted Monday that she is beginning to support the Trump nominee. 

Ernst wrote in a statement Monday that "as I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources."

She added in her statement that "following our encouraging conversations, Pete committed to completing a full audit of the Pentagon and selecting a senior official who will uphold the roles and value of our servicemen and women – based on quality and standards, not quotas – and who will prioritize and strengthen my work to prevent sexual assault within the ranks."

​​Trump nominated Hegseth, a former National Guard officer, as secretary of defense last month, saying "with Pete at the helm, America's enemies are on notice — Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down." Hegseth was a host on "Fox & Friends Weekend" before Trump's nomination. 

Fox News Digital reported Sunday, following Ernst's initial hesitation to support Hegseth, that Trump’s allies were expected to ramp up criticisms against her as she stalls on offering support to Trump’s secretary of defense pick.

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"It's really this simple: If you oppose President Trump's nominees, you oppose the Trump agenda and there will be a political price to pay for that. We are well aware that there are certain establishment Senators trying to tank the President's nominees to make him look weak and damage him politically, and we're just not going to allow that to happen," a top Trump ally told Fox News Digital. 

Hegseth continued in his interview with Hannity that he will also meet with Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, who Hannity identified as a pair of more liberal Republican senators compared to their colleagues. 

"We will be meeting with Sen. Collins on Wednesday and Sen. Murkowski on Tuesday. And let me tell you, Sean, the founders got this right. This is not a trivial process. This is a real thing: advise and consent of a nominee who the president has chosen. And I'm so grateful that President Trump would have the faith in me to lead the Defense Department, to choose me to do that. But this advise and consent process, meeting with all the members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and they all have great questions, and my answers are for them," Hegseth said. 

The SecDef nominee also pushed back on claims of impropriety during the interview, arguing "the left is trying to turn this into a trial in the media –  show trial –  and we're not going to let that happen."

"I'm going to walk into the door of every one of these senators with just, as an open book, willing to answer their questions, because they deserve answers. … I've heard great things about all of these senators and the questions they want to ask, and we look forward to earning these votes. That's what it's about, ultimately earning the votes through the committee and through the entire U.S. Senate," he said. 

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Reports surfaced last week alleging Trump had lost faith in his nominee as Democrats slammed the choice and some Republicans, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, remarked the allegations against Hegseth were "disturbing." Trump bucked the claims when he doubled down on his support of Hegseth in a Truth Social post on Friday, while Vice President-elect JD Vance also said the Trump team is "​​not abandoning this nomination."

​​"Pete Hegseth is doing very well. His support is strong and deep," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday. "He will be a fantastic, high ​​energy, Secretary of Defense, one who leads with charisma and skill. Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!"

Fox News Digital's Cameron Cawthorne and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report. 

President-elect Trump on Sunday nominated Harmeet K. Dhillon as the assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Justice Department.

Trump said Dhillon has consistently protected civil liberties throughout her career, including taking on Big Tech for censoring free speech, representing Christians who were not allowed to pray together during the COVID-19 pandemic, and suing corporations who use woke policies to discriminate against their employees.

"Harmeet is one of the top election lawyers in the country, fighting to ensure that all, and ONLY, legal votes are counted," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of Virginia Law School and clerked in the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals."

"Harmeet is a respected member of the Sikh religious community," he added. "In her new role at the DOJ, Harmeet will be a tireless defender of our Constitutional Rights and will enforce our Civil Rights and Election Laws FAIRLY and FIRMLY."

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Trump also wrote in a separate post that Mark Paoletta will return as general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget.

In the role, Trump said, Paoletta will work closely with the Department of Government Efficiency to cut the size of "our bloated government bureaucracy and root out wasteful and anti-American spending."

Trump called Paoletta a brilliant and tenacious lawyer, crediting him with working to advance his agenda in the first term, while leading the charge to find funding to build a wall at the southern border.

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Mark is a partner at the law firm Shaerr Jaffe LLP and a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America.

"Mark has served as a Chief Counsel for Oversight and Investigations in Congress for a decade and was a key lawyer in the White House Counsel’s Office to confirm Justice Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991," Trump wrote. "Mark is a conservative warrior who knows the ‘ins and outs’ of Government – He will help us, Make America Great Again!"

And finally, Trump announced that KC Crosbie is running to become the next co-chair of the Republican National Committee to replace Lara Trump.

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"Lara, together with Chairman Michael Whatley, transformed the RNC into a lean, focused, and powerful machine that is empowering the MAGA Movement for many years to come," the president-elect said. "Thank you for your hard work, Lara, in MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

The incoming president also said Crosbie has helped "real" Republicans get elected across the U.S. and would make a tremendous co-chair.

"KC will work on continuing to ensure a highly functioning, fiscally responsible, and effective RNC that makes Election Integrity a highest priority," Trump said. "KC Crosbie has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next Co-Chair of the RNC!"