Florida’s Attorney General argued in court that public schools have the right to remove books. Ashley Moody wrote in a legal brief that addresses the lawsuit against Escambia County School District [ECSD], explaining that public school libraries are a forum for government – therefore, books are subject to be removed if deemed inappropriate.
The lawsuit was filed in May on behalf of book publisher Penguin Random House and PEN America Center, Inc., a group that champions free speech, and two parents of students attending ECSD.
They are challenging the decisions of the school district and the Escambia County School Board to remove and restrict books from libraries.
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"The State has a substantial interest in preserving the government’s authority to decide for itself what materials to curate in its public-school libraries," Moody wrote.
The plaintiffs argue that the decisions of the Escambia County School Board to restrict certain materials in public school libraries within the district violate free speech rights because the government is prohibited from restricting materials "based on viewpoint" or that "deny students access to ideas with which the school board disagrees."
Public school systems make value-based judgments like that daily, Moody argues.
She explained further, "They exclude materials like Nazi propaganda because they disagree that Nazis were wonderful, regardless of any educational value the materials may have."
Moody argues further that viewpoint-based educational choices are "constitutionally permissible" because public school libraries convey the government’s message and the government can "regulate the content of . . . its own message."
"And because the compilation of library materials is government speech, the First Amendment does not bar the government from making viewpoint-based choices about what to curate," Moody wrote.
The lawsuit also called out the school district for ignoring their existing policies on reviewing the content of books.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida received a pair of lawsuits over the removal of books in school libraries, including the one aimed at ECSD.
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Lake County School District is another entity named in one of the two lawsuits for restricting books in school libraries. Florida education officials, including Education Secretary Manny Diaz Jr. and the members of the State Board of Education, were listed in the lawsuit alongside the Lake County school district.
The lawsuit against Lake County and Florida education officials alleges that First Amendment rights were violated when they removed the book "And Tango Makes Three," which tells the story of a real-life same-sex penguin couple that creates a family together.
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The lawsuit comes after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed his education law that prohibits school employees or third parties from giving classroom instruction on "sexual orientation" or "gender identity" in all grades K-12.
