Greg Sargent at The Post wrote a column (gift link) about a new bill moving through the Florida statehouse that will supercharge the conservative book-banning spree. As we discussed yesterday, some school district officials (in Pinellas County, for example) are in a defensive crouch and snatch books off school shelves if even a single kook complains. Other district officials take their jobs as educators more seriously and follow a process, leaving books in place until reviews are complete.
As Sargent notes, the bill in question is getting a lot of attention for extending the application of the anti-LGBTQ “don’t say gay” restrictions through 12th grade, but it would also mandate a Pinellas County-style defensive crouch for complaints about books. It would empower random anti-book vigilantes to effect a book’s immediate removal with a complaint and require a review before a title can return to the shelves.
If the new bill passes, it would become statewide policy that this book (Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye) — or others with similarly peripheral “sexual conduct” — must be banned from a given district’s schools immediately upon the objection of one resident of that county, says Kara Gross, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.
“It grants enormous power to a single bigoted individual to dictate and control what books other parents’ kids have access to,” Gross told me.
This, in turn, could make it easier for bad-faith actors to nix books while avoiding a process in which baseless objections might initially get dismissed. As (political scientist Jeffrey) Sachs put it, “the automatic removal provision will be abused and lead to widespread censorship.”
Feature, bug, etc.
Here’s my question as a non-lawyer: Is there anything the Department of Justice can do about Florida’s worsening censorship problem? The issue isn’t confined to K-12 schools and minors’ access to books. Government censors are abridging free speech for private businesses and muzzling professors and college students too.
I’m aware of lawsuits in some of these cases, but it seems like at some point, it would be appropriate for the federal government to step in and protect Floridians’ rights as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. I’m not sure where that line is.
Sargent thinks that if this bill becomes law, it may hurt DeSantis with suburban voters when more randos cause popular titles to be banned and attract backlash. That happened in Martin County when the GOP operatives at Moms for Liberty Censorship got novels by Jodi Picoult removed from high school libraries. Picoult is fighting back, and good for her. But we need help now.
Apologies for being a Debbie Downer so early in the day; please feel free to discuss anything!
Open thread.
PS: This 100-year-old lady who addressed a Martin County schoolboard meeting is awesome! And a quilter!