In Win for Publishers, Authors, and Book Access, Part of Florida's School Book Law Ruled Unconstitutional | WUWF
Siding with publishers and authors, a federal judge Wednesday ruled that a key part of a 2023 Florida law that has led to books being removed from school library shelves is “overbroad and unconstitutional.”

It was a big win for the plaintiffs—Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Sourcebooks; The Authors Guild; authors Julia Alvarez, John Green, Laurie Halse Anderson, Jodi Picoult, and Angie Thomas; and parents Heidi Kellogg and Judith Anne Hayes—and all the advocates fighting for the freedom to read in Florida.

U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza issued a 50-page decision in a First Amendment lawsuit filed last year against members of the State Board of Education and the school boards in Orange and Volusia counties. The judge focused primarily on part of the law that seeks to prevent the availability of reading material that “describes sexual conduct.”

He wrote that the law “does not evaluate the work to determine if it has any holistic value” and “does not specify what level of detail describes sexual conduct.”

The state’s attorneys argued, in part, that the selection of library books is “government speech” and not subject to the First Amendment. But Mendoza rejected that argument Wednesday, saying “the removal of library books without consideration of their overall value cannot be an expressive activity amounting to government speech.”

“A blanket content-based prohibition on materials, rather than one based on individualized curation, hardly expresses any intentional government message at all,” Mendoza wrote. “Slapping the label of government speech on book removals only serves to stifle the disfavored viewpoints.”

The judge also cited the role of parental objections in driving decisions to remove books.

“To be sure, parents have the right to ‘direct the upbringing and education of children,’ but the government cannot repackage their speech and pass it off as its own,” he wrote, partially quoting a U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

Michigan School Librarian Sues Parent, Alleging Smear Campaign | WOOD-TV
A West Michigan school librarian is suing a parent who she says harassed her for years over the library’s catalog.

“The accusations that have been made against me are not even decent. They’re absolutely horrific things that people have said,” Christine Beachler told News 8.

Beachler, the library media director for Lowell Area Schools, said she has found herself in the national spotlight after Stefanie Boone, a parent of a Lowell student, launched an alleged smear campaign against her.

In her civil lawsuit, Beachler claims Boone has posted countless social media texts and videos over the past five years calling Beachler a “smut-peddling media specialist,” “groomer” and “pedophile.”

Lee, Collier, Charlotte County Return Majority of Challenged Books to Libraries, with Restrictions | WGCU
Last school year’s reports from the Florida Board of Education showed that a majority of the hundreds of books removed from public school libraries for review were returned with restrictions for age and parental consent.

Collier County pulled 316 books for review and removed three from circulation. Lee County reviewed 30 books and removed six. In Charlotte County, 78 books were reviewed but all of them were returned to circulation.

Twenty-Six States Have Some Sort of State Law Governing School Library Curation Policies | Ballotpedia News
Find out which states legislate collection development and what the laws are.