Publishers win lawsuit against controversial book ban in Florida
A federal judge ruled last Friday that Florida’s HB2019 law, which allowed parents to remove books with alleged sexual content from school libraries and classrooms, was overly broad and unconstitutional.
“Historically, librarians curate their collections based on professional judgment, not by orders from above,” the judge stated. “There are also indications that the law swept up far more non-obscene books than just the titles mentioned here.”
The law was also used to remove, in addition to titles such as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Richard Wright’s Native Son, and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, books with LGBTQ themes from school libraries.
Last year alone, some 4,500 books were pulled from various school libraries. Under the 2023 law, Florida schools could be pressured to remove books deemed “inappropriate” or “too pornographic” by parents. In the Collier County School District, more than 350 books were removed under HB1069, including If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo and Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett. Other well-known LGBTQ+ titles, such as And Tango Makes Three, I Am Jazz, and Jacob’s New Dress, were also banned across multiple Florida districts due to the law’s vague wording. According to research by PEN America, 39% of the books removed in more than one district were LGBTQ-related.
Several major publishers, including Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishing, and Simon & Schuster, joined with a number of authors to challenge the law in court. The judge’s ruling emphasized that schools must rely on a U.S. Supreme Court precedent: whether the average person would find the work as a whole sexually arousing; whether it depicts sexual content in an offensive manner; and whether the work lacks literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
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Een federale rechter heeft afgelopen vrijdag geoordeeld dat de door de staat Florida uitgevaardigde wet HB2019, die ouders de mogelijkheid gaf om boeken met vermeende seksuele inhoud uit schoolbibliotheken en klaslokalen te laten verwijderen, te verregaand en ongrondwettelijk is. “Historisch gezien stellen bibliothecarissen hun collecties samen op basis van hun deskundig inzicht, niet op bevelen van hogerhand,” zei de rechter. “Er zijn bovendien aanwijzingen dat de wet meer niet-obscene boeken heeft meegesleurd dan enkel de hier vermelde titels.” De wet werd ook gebruikt om, naast titels als Margaret Atwoods The Handmaid’s Tale, Richard Wrights Native Son en Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five,...
Un juge fédéral a statué vendredi dernier que la loi HB2019, promulguée par l’État de Floride et permettant aux parents de faire retirer des livres contenant un contenu sexuel présumé des bibliothèques scolaires et des salles de classe, était trop excessive et inconstitutionnelle.« Historiquement, les bibliothécaires constituent leurs collections sur la base de leur expertise, et non sur ordre des autorités supérieures », a déclaré le juge. « Il existe en outre des indices que la loi a entraîné la suppression de bien plus de livres non obscènes que les seuls titres mentionnés ici. » La loi a également servi...
