A federal judge has overturned most of Florida’s book ban law.
The judge found that the state’s law, HB 1069, goes against students’ First Amendment rights, and he said more than 20 books on a list of titles challenged in Florida are not obscene.
While the ruling won’t immediately return banned books to classroom and library shelves, it’s still being celebrated by advocates like Florida Freedom to Read Project’s Director Stephana Ferrell, who say the judge’s ruling is a huge win for Florida schools, parents and kids.
“The judge affirmed that students have a right to access information and that authors have a right to have their books reach their intended audience without viewpoint-based limitations placed on that access,” said Ferrell.
She said the ruling makes it easier for parents and students to sue if certain books are removed from schools and school libraries.
“So it is quite important that 23 books were named, that the judge says these books are not obscene, and that the restrictions are unconstitutional. That is important, and that does give parents and students the right to pursue litigation,” said Ferrell.
The Florida Department of Education plans to challenge the ruling.
“We remain unwavering in our commitment to defending parental rights and protecting children from exposure to inappropriate content,” the department said in a statement. “This is a fight we are determined to win, no matter how hard the activists work to try to stop us.”
The federal ruling comes a year after major publishing houses and young adult authors like John Green and Julia Alvarez sued Florida over its book ban law. They also sued the Orange and Volusia County School Boards after dozens of books were removed from schools and school libraries.
At the time of the lawsuit being filed last August, the Florida Department of Education wrote, “This is a stunt. There are no books banned in Florida. Sexually explicit material and instruction are not suitable for schools.”
In the federal ruling issued last week, books can still be removed for being “pornagraphic” but only if they are subjected to the Miller Test, which is a legal guide for determining whether something is obscene.
The list of books the judge ruled should not have been removed from Florida schools and are not obscene include:
- The Color Purple
- Half of a Yellow Sun
- Cloud Atlas
- The Splendid and the Vile
- I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
- The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them
- On the Road, Nineteen Minutes
- Paper Towns
- Looking for Alaska
- How the García Girls Lost Their Accents
- The Kite Runner
- Slaughterhouse-Five
- Shout
- Last Night at the Telegraph Club
- The Handmaid’s Tale
- Native Son
- Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa
- Water for Elephants
- Beloved
- Song of Solomon
- The Bluest Eye
- Homegoing
