Publishers file lawsuit to stop Florida ban on fast books – Baptist News Global

Six major American publishers, The Authors Guild and several authors and parents have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block a new Florida law that would allow public school libraries to ban books if a parent objects to sexual content.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, argues that Florida’s 2023 law violates the First Amendment rights of students, authors and publishers by requiring school districts, media professionals and teachers to remove books from shelves or risk losing their licenses and other penalties.

Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishing Group, Simon & Schuster and Sourcebooks are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, along with authors Julia Alvarez, John Green, Laurie Halse Anderson, Jodi Picoult, Angie Thomas, two parents and two students.

Their action concerns numerous banned titles, including Maya Angelou’s I know why the caged bird singsRalph Ellison’s Invisible manZora Neale Hurston’s Their eyes were looking to GodAldous Huxleys Brave New Worldby Toni Morrison The bluest eyeLeo Tolstoy’s Anna KareninaKurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse Fiveand Alice Walker’s The color purple.

“These books are timeless classics, renowned for their literary value,” the lawsuit states. “Many of them have won awards or are bestsellers. They have sat on the shelves of school libraries for years, and they are not even obscene. But Florida has required that these books and others be removed from school libraries under broad, all-encompassing, content-based mandates that prohibit consideration of the books’ value.”

Author Stephen King, who is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit, expressed his dismay at Florida’s law regarding X: “Florida has banned 23 of my books. What the ****?”

But Florida authorities doubled down on their efforts He defended the law, arguing that it helps the state protect students from offensive material.

“This is a stunt. There are no banned books in Florida. Sexually explicit material and instruction are not appropriate for schools,” Sydney Booker, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Education, said in a statement to CBS News.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has consistently decried what he calls “the book ban hoax,” blamed the media for creating the controversy, CBS News reported. “The media tries to say this is, quote, banning books, but what you have in a school, you have to make judgments about what is appropriate and what is not.”

The law created by House Bill 1069 was introduced and enacted at a time when DeSantis and the Republican-controlled state legislature were waging a “war on woke” through laws banning the teaching of Critical Race Theory and sexual orientation or gender identity, and banning the use of gay or transgender language and pronouns by teachers and students.

HB 1069 placed strict limits on the confidentiality of teachers or school counselors when communicating with LGBTQ students and changed the procedures for challenging books, resulting in swift bans of titles deemed offensive because of black history, LGBTQ content, or sexual content.

The law requires that all objectionable materials “be removed within five school days of receipt of the objection and remain unavailable until the objection is resolved.” The school district must make a decision on the objection, but parents may appeal the school district’s decision to the Florida Department of Education.

The free speech organization Pen America published a report in April that identified Florida as the nation’s leader in book bans.

The freedom of speech group Pen America published a report in April that identified Florida as the nation’s leader in book banning, with 3,135 books banned across 11 counties from 2021 through the end of 2023. Wisconsin (481), Iowa (142) and Texas (141) were next in line. The book banning movement has weaponized the term “obscenity” to target titles with themes of sexual violence, a topic that particularly affects women and nonbinary authors, the report added.

Pen America said it has documented 4,349 cases of book bans nationwide in the fall of 2023 alone: ​​”Since the current wave of book bans began in 2021, sex in books has frequently been used as grounds for removal. Opponents have described books as ‘pornographic,’ ‘disgusting,’ and ‘obscene;’ in August, a woman in Pennsylvania even accused school officials of ‘sexually abusing’ her granddaughter by making several book titles available.”

Books about LGBTQ have come under particular scrutiny, Pen America reported. “The movement to ban books has seen a widespread and consistent attack on trans students, trans stories, and trans authors. At least 8% of all books banned between 2021 and 2023 feature transgender characters or stories.”

The publishers are suing the state said the law is unconstitutional as any book can be banned regardless of its social or cultural value.

The list of banned books includes classics such as Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens, For whom the bell tolls by Ernest Hemingway, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, as well as contemporary novels by bestselling authors such as Margaret Atwood, Judy Blume, and Stephen King. Nonfiction titles include accounts of the Holocaust such as The diary of a young girl of Anne Frank have been removed.”

By banning any topic or passage that could be construed as “sexual conduct,” the law ignores the overall educational value of a book, the press release said: “As publishers committed to protecting free speech and the right to read, the rise in book bans across the country continues to demand our collective action. Fighting unconstitutional legislation in Florida and across the country is an urgent priority. We are unwavering in our support for teachers, librarians, students, authors, readers — everyone deserves access to books and stories that showcase diverse perspectives and points of view.”

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