Judge strikes down key parts of Florida law that led to removal of books from school libraries

Key provisions of a Florida statute that assisted parents in having books they deemed offensive taken out of public school libraries and classrooms have been overturned by a federal judge. Publishers and authors who sued after their books were taken down have won.

In his decision on Wednesday, Orlando U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza declared that the statute’s ban on content that depicted sexual activity was excessively broad.

The state’s interpretation of the 2023 statute, according to Mendoza, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, is unconstitutional.

Classics like Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five,” Richard Wright’s “Native Son,” and Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” were among the novels that had been taken out of central Florida schools.

“Historically, librarians curate their collections based on their sound discretion not based on decrees from on high,” remarked the judge. “There is also evidence that the statute has swept up more non-obscene books than just the ones referenced here.”

New state training that encouraged librarians to err on the side of caution reinforced school officials’ concerns that any sexual content was dubious after the measure was passed by the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature. Florida had 4,500 school book removals last year, more than any other state in the country.

According to the judge’s decision, schools ought to return to a precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court, which states that the criteria are whether the work is devoid of literary, artistic, political, or scientific merit, whether it portrays sexual content in an offensive manner, and whether the work would be considered prurient by the average person.

Some of the biggest book publishers in the country, some of the writers whose works had been taken out of central Florida school libraries, and the parents of students who attempted to check out the books that had been taken out filed the complaint.

“The Hate U Give” author Angie Thomas, “My Sister’s Keeper” author Jodi Picoult, “The Fault in Our Stars” author John Green, and “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” author Julia Alvarez were among the claimants. Simon and Schuster, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishing, Penguin Random House, and Hachette Book Group were among the publisher plaintiffs.