In a thorough 26-page decision, federal judge Carlos E. Mendoza has rejected the state of Florida’s bid to toss a closely watched lawsuit over Florida state law HB 1069, which critics say is fueling a dramatic surge in unconstitutional book bans in schools and school libraries throughout the state.
Filed in August 2024 by a coalition of six major publishers, the Authors Guild, students, parents, and several bestselling authors, the lawsuit specifically alleges that two unconstitutionally “vague and overbroad” provisions of HB 1069 have forced school officials to remove “books that describe sexual content” from school libraries or “face penalties, including loss of licensure.”
The suit seeks two declaratory judgments: one, that HB 1069’s prohibition on books that contain "sexual content" in K-12 schools is overbroad and unconstitutional; and two, that the term "pornographic" used in HB 1069 is synonymous with the state’s existing "harmful to minors" standard, which is properly grounded in the Supreme Court's standard for obscenity set forth in Miller v. California. Or, if it is not, a judgment striking down the provision as unconstitutionally vague.
In their initial complaint, the plaintiffs note that the law’s vague language has already led to hundreds of books being pulled from school and classroom libraries in the state, including classics such as Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man; Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World; Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye; and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughter-House Five. Contemporary books by the plaintiff authors, including Julia Alvarez, Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, Jodi Picoult, and Angie Thomas, are also among those pulled.
In seeking to have the case dismissed, lawyers for the state of Florida branded the complaint a “shotgun pleading,” and presented several arguments challenging the standing of the plaintiffs—all of which the court has now rejected.
“State Defendants…argue that Plaintiffs fail to acknowledge that ‘[t]o fulfill their traditional missions, public libraries must have broad discretion to decide what material to provide to their patrons.’ However, it is State Defendants that fail to grapple with the fact that discretion is what this statute removes,” Mendoza held, in denying the state's motion. “What the Court is faced with today is a regime built around not a librarian’s sound judgment but rather any parent’s objection.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed H.B. 1069 into law in May 2023 as part of a suite of bills that defined his "Let Kids Be Kids" agenda.
The suit comes after a group of parents and Florida public school students, along with the ACLU, filed suit in June alleging that the law’s content review procedures discriminate against parents who oppose book bans and censorship.
The case is now on track for a trial as early as November, barring any unforeseen developments or delays.
