Multiple book publishers and authors are suing education officials in the state of Florida over a law passed last year that enables parents to request sexually explicit materials be removed from school libraries.
It lists the Florida Board of Education and multiple education officials, including Orange and Volusia County school board members, as defendants.
The legislation was signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in May 2023.
Prior to House Bill 1069, Florida already required school districts to remove books that contained “pornographic” content or content that was “not suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material” or was deemed inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which the material was being made available.
However, House Bill 1069 expanded the content that the state prohibits in school libraries to include that which depicts or describes sexual conduct.
The law also requires schools to promptly remove materials from library shelves if a parent or county resident complains that they depict sexual conduct as defined within the law.
According to the legislation, such material would be removed pending investigation and may be permanently taken off library shelves.
In their legal challenge, the book publishers and authors argued the law has “mandated that school districts impose a regime of strict censorship in school libraries.”
“HB 1069 requires school districts to remove library books without regard to their literary, artistic, political, scientific, or educational value when taken as a whole,” they wrote. “As a result of HB 1069, hundreds of different titles have been removed from school libraries across the State.”
Florida ‘Cannot Suppress the Disfavored Message’
They said the law violates their First and 14th amendments because it “interferes” with their ability to make their books available to readers and distribute constitutionally protected books.Furthermore, the law “chills those plaintiffs and others from engaging in protected activity,” they wrote.
Some of the books that have been removed from shelves under the law include “timeless classics, renowned for their literary value,” according to the lawsuit.
They include “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway, and “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, according to the lawsuit.
“If the State of Florida dislikes an author’s idea, it can offer a competing message,” the lawsuit states. “It cannot suppress the disfavored message.”
The publishers and authors noted that they “do not seek to prevent Florida school districts from ensuring that school libraries do not contain obscene books.”
Instead, they said, their issue is with the “removal of books under the guise of ‘pornography’ that are not remotely obscene,” which they said results from the Florida State Board of Education’s “unconstitutional construction of the term ‘pornographic.’”
Besides requiring the removal of books with sexually explicit content from school libraries, HB 1069 requires sex education programs to teach that sex is determined by reproductive function at birth and to only use classroom materials that have been approved by the state Department of Education.
In signing it into law last year, DeSantis said the legislation, among other measures, would protect children from gender identity politics in schools.
“Florida is proud to lead the way in standing up for our children,” DeSantis said at the time. “As the world goes mad, Florida represents a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy.”
DeSantis is not listed as a defendant in the lawsuit.
The Epoch Times contacted the Florida Department of Education for comment but didn’t receive a reply by publication time.
