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Federal Judge Clears Way for Publishers’ Lawsuit Against Florida and Volusia Boards of Education Over Banned Books

March 3, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 10 Comments

One of many displays about banned books at The Lynx, a bookshop in Gainesville. (© FlaglerLive)
One of many displays about banned books at The Lynx, a bookshop in Gainesville. (© FlaglerLive)

With major publishing companies and authors arguing a 2023 state law violates First Amendment rights, a federal judge Friday refused to dismiss a lawsuit against members of the State Board of Education over the removal of school library books.

U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza, appointed by President Obama, rejected a state motion to dismiss the case, which also names as defendants members of the Orange County and Volusia County school boards.




Six publishing companies, The Authors Guild, five authors and two parents filed the lawsuit Aug. 29 in federal court in Orlando. It is one of a series of lawsuits stemming from the 2023 education law and related decisions by school districts to remove books from library shelves or to restrict access.

The lawsuit centers on parts of the law (HB 1069) that seek to prevent availability of reading material that is “pornographic” or “describes sexual conduct.” The publishing companies, authors and other plaintiffs contend, for example, that the prohibition on material that describes sexual conduct is overly broad in violation of the First Amendment.

The state’s attorneys raised a series of arguments in seeking dismissal, including that the selection of library books is “government speech” and not subject to the First Amendment. Also, the motion to dismiss the case said the “government does not generally violate the First Amendment when it withdraws a benefit that merely facilitates the exercise of a constitutional right.”

But in turning down such arguments, Mendoza wrote that the state fails “to grapple with the fact that discretion is what this statute removes.” Books can be removed if parents object to their content.

“What the court is faced with today is a regime built around not a librarian’s sound judgment but rather any parent’s objection, however capricious,” Mendoza wrote. “What plaintiffs appear to allege is that school librarians have been stripped of their broad discretion because they must remove objected to books that do not contain obscene material and may not undertake a ‘holistic evaluation or consideration of their literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.’”

The state board members’ motion also contended that any “alleged injury is not fairly traceable to (them) and thus not redressable by a decision against them because they only have general supervisory authority over the true actors removing books — the local school boards,” Mendoza wrote.

But he rejected that argument because the state board approved a form that is used to object to books.

“Who caused the injury? While it may be local officials that physically remove the books, it is state defendants’ interpretation of the statute — contained in the objection form — that plaintiffs challenge in this action,” Mendoza wrote.




He added, “Because the objection form is ‘prescribed by State Board of Education rule,’ pursuant to (state law), state defendants are at the root of plaintiffs’ alleged injury.”

Friday’s decision does not resolve the underlying case. Mendoza has scheduled a May 21 hearing on motions for summary judgment.

The lawsuit cited removals from library shelves of numerous books, such as “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison and “Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Both of those authors were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for their novels and other work.

The plaintiffs in the case are publishing companies Penguin Random House LLC, Hachette Book Group, Inc., HarperCollins Publishers LLC, Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC, Simon & Schuster, LLC and Sourcebooks LLC; The Authors Guild; authors Julia Alvarez, John Green, Laurie Halse Anderson, Jodi Picoult and Angie Thomas; and parents Heidi Kellogg and Judith Anne Hayes.

–Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sherry says

    March 3, 2025 at 12:38 pm

    RIGHT ON! Book Banning Must Be Stopped!

    5
  2. JC says

    March 3, 2025 at 4:32 pm

    Better ban the Bible!

    Gen 16:2
    Ezek 23:8

    So Sarai told Abram, “You are well aware that the LORD has prevented me from giving birth to a child. Go have sex with my servant, so that I may possibly bear a son through her.”

    Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/words/Sex

    4
  3. Ed P says

    March 3, 2025 at 5:53 pm

    Banning books is a ridiculous action. The internet presents many more opportunities for anyone to find anything.
    Law suits against school boards or any public sector entity cost tax payers directly.
    Library books being signed out are reducing annually.Technology is changing.
    If an avid reader wants a book that is not in a school library, try a public library or on line such as kindle.
    If any parent believes any banned books are critical to a child’s education, buy the books.
    Also, if these lawsuits fail, make the plaintiff pay all court costs and legal fees for school boards.

    Common sense has failed to derail this feud at multiple mediation points.

    1
  4. Skibum says

    March 3, 2025 at 10:35 pm

    Absolutely right. Have these childish, brainless wonders putting book bans in schools and libraries never heard of anyone doing a simple Google search on the internet or clicking over to Amazon.com where I would bet nearly any book ever published could be found? Maga are idiots, all of them!

    2
  5. Atwp says

    March 4, 2025 at 4:51 am

    Love it. How long will this last, a Republican judge will probably reverse the ruling.

    2
  6. Tired of it says

    March 4, 2025 at 9:00 am

    Yes! If you don’t want your child to read a book, be a parent, supervise what your child is doing. But, don’t take away my option to have my child read anything.

    2
  7. Kennan says

    March 4, 2025 at 1:59 pm

    Nice! Hope it all sticks. You let these tyrants have their way with the 1st amendment then they will go light years beyond it. 1984.

    1
  8. Ed P says

    March 4, 2025 at 2:59 pm

    Maybe not all Magas.
    However, we live in an environment molded by social media and sound bites.
    Critical thinking is a lost skill because of it.

  9. Beth says

    March 4, 2025 at 8:12 pm

    Except Florida state law states that showing pornographic material to children is a felony. So an illustration of one child performing oral sex on another is a felony. So I guess we could arrest all the librarians for sexual misconduct with a child. Or you could not have them in schools. They are not banned! Any bookstore, any website, any public library offer every “banned” book you wanna cry about. You want child pronography? Have fun with that sick perversion on your own time, not in the schools!

    1
  10. Sherry says

    March 5, 2025 at 2:46 pm

    @ beth. . . First of all, no matter what your news source (Fox?) says, not ALL of Florida’s banned books are poronographic. Have “you” personally ever read any books by Pulitzer Prize Winning Toni Morrison or Gabriel Garcia Marquez? How about 1984 by George Orwell? All these books are amazing and enlightening! Consider the possibility that you should do much more research before letting any media outlet fill you with such “fear” that you would write such a comment.

    1

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