Major Publishers Sue Florida Over Banned School Library Books

Several large American publishers sued Florida education officials on Thursday over a state law that prohibits sexual content in school libraries. They argue that the law has ignited a wave of book removals in violation of the First Amendment.

The Florida law, enacted last year, requires school districts to allow parents and other residents to limit children’s access to library materials. The lawsuit — filed by Penguin Random House, the nation’s biggest publisher, and other companies — argues that the rule has caused a blanket purge of hundreds of books across the state, and created a “regime of strict censorship in school libraries.”

The suit, filed in federal court in Orlando, is the latest dispute over whether schools should let children read books that touch on themes of race, gender or sexual orientation. Conflicts over what reading material is appropriate for children have emerged in a number of states, but Florida has become an epicenter for these fights under the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, and the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature.

Supporters of the regulations say their goals are to safeguard students from obscene content and give families more control over their children’s education. But they have faced sharp criticism from free speech organizations and authors over the restrictions, and the state’s school districts face several other lawsuits over them.

The lawsuit filed on Thursday argues that many “timeless classics” and best-selling novels are being indiscriminately tossed from school library shelves.

Those books include “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston and “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut, according to the suit.

“If the State of Florida dislikes an author’s idea, it can offer a competing message,” the lawsuit said. “It cannot suppress the disfavored message.”

Sydney Booker, a spokeswoman for the State Education Department, said in a statement on Thursday that the lawsuit was “a stunt” from the publishing companies.

“There are no books banned in Florida,” she said. “Sexually explicit material and instruction are not suitable for schools.”

The rise in book bans has accelerated in recent years. More than 4,300 books were removed from schools across 23 states in a six-month period last year, according to PEN America, a free speech organization.

Free speech advocates say that Florida has become a testing ground for book-banning tactics. The law at the center of the case, House Bill 1069, requires schools to promptly remove a book if a single parent or county resident makes a complaint that it depicts sexual conduct.

The governor, who is not named as a defendant in the suit, has rallied against what he describes as “woke indoctrination,” and argued that pornographic and inappropriate material has been “snuck into our classrooms and libraries to sexualize our students.”

He has homed in on books like “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, a graphic memoir about coming out as nonbinary that includes some drawings of nude characters and sexual scenarios.

The lawsuit said that some educators have thrown out all of the books in their classroom libraries to avoid controversy or penalties, which could include losing their teaching licenses.

Education officials have broad discretion over the books in school libraries, but the Supreme Court has said their judgment “may not be exercised in a narrowly partisan or political manner.”

The publishing companies said in the Thursday lawsuit that they “do not seek to prevent Florida school districts from ensuring that school libraries do not contain obscene books,” and are not asking for the entire law to be overturned.

But they argued that books that get removed from libraries are often described as “pornographic,” while in practice, they “are not remotely obscene.”

Mary Rasenberger, the chief executive of the Authors Guild, which is a plaintiff in the suit, said in a statement that the law could have a chilling effect on what authors write about.

“We all lose out when authors’ truths are censored,” she said.