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A group of authors and the nation’s largest publishers filed a lawsuit in federal court against Florida’s public officials.
They’re challenging a 2023 state law that restricts books in school libraries.
The law allows anyone in a school district to object to a classroom book that contains sexual content, and if a parent or county resident files a complaint, the book must be removed within five days and remain unavailable until the issue is resolved.
Penguin Random House, one of the world’s largest book publishing companies, joins five other publishers in the lawsuit: Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster, and Sourcebooks.
The Authors Guild, along with authors Julia Alvarez, Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, Jodi Picoult, and Angie Thomas, two parents, and two students are also involved in the suit.
Dan Novack is a Vice President and Associate General Counsel of Random House.
He said the rule has caused chaos and turmoil across the state.
“In addition to the removal of books en masse, we’ve actually heard from educators that have left the profession entirely in Florida, because they just can’t do their jobs,” Novack said.
Novack says the law violates the Supreme Court precedent set in 1973 that said media content should be reviewed for obscenity as a whole for its literary, artistic, political, and scientific value.
Precedent that was extended to minors.
“We’re prepared to defend the right to read and the right to speak –that’s the author’s right, in this case- wherever it’s being imperiled, and it’s important to fight,” Novack said.
Novack says the lawsuit is focused on giving young people access to information in Florida.
Penguin Random House and the other five publishers are also involved in a lawsuit challenging book-banning provisions in Iowa. Random House is also a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by PEN America against Escambia County School Board in Florida over books being unconstitutionally removed from school libraries.
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