Six major publishers sue the state of Florida in landmark book banning lawsuit

Some of the biggest publishers and authors in the nation have banded together to file a landmark lawsuit against the state of Florida, seeking to rule its book-banning legislation unconstitutional.

Florida has been at the forefront of the book-banning movement sweeping across the country. The state is the birthplace of Moms for Liberty, the far-right organization that spearheaded efforts to enact book bans and censorship in schools and public libraries. Under Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the organization has made the state the nation’s leader in book bans. According to the American Library Association, in 2023 alone, Florida challenged almost 2,700 titles in public schools and libraries. Book-banning rates are so high due to House Bill 1069, which DeSantis signed into law. It stipulates that teachers must immediately remove any books that can be perceived as having “sexual content” but does not require that they take into account the context of the content or the educational value of the book.

Given that the legislation purposefully only vaguely defines “sexual” materials and threatens educators with lawsuits, many libraries have been forced to simply pull books from shelves by the dozens. Under the bill, Florida recently banned 23 of Stephen King’s books. It’s just one of many examples of how easy the legislation makes it to enact sweeping book bans across the state. Fortunately, several publishers are pushing back against the law.

Publishers and authors take action against Florida

On August 29, HarperCollins Publishers published a press release revealing that several of the biggest publishing companies in the world are embarking on a legal battle against Florida over its book-banning legislation. HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster, and Sourcebooks have filed a lawsuit against Florida’s public officials over HB 1069. Several high-profile authors, including Julia Alvarez, Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, Jodi Picoult, and Angie Thomas, have also been named plaintiffs in the suit.

The lawsuit explains that hundreds of titles have been banned since HB 1069 went into effect, ranging from classics like A Tale of Two Cities to contemporary bestsellers from authors like King. The problem isn’t just that books’ educational value isn’t factored into bans, but also that the law is very easy to take advantage of. All it takes is a single parent or “resident of the country” to object to a book to get it pulled. The books can’t be returned to shelves until they are reviewed, but noticeably absent from the law are any stipulations for how soon these reviews must be completed. So, books can be pulled and remain off shelves for an indefinite amount of time. Even if a book is reviewed and deemed appropriate, an objector can then demand a “state-appointed special magistrate” review the book at the school district’s expense.

The publishers stated that fighting Florida’s unconstitutional book-banning legislation was an urgent priority to protect “freedom of expression and the right to read.” Penguin Random House’s Vice President, Dan Novack, called HB 1069 “complex and overbroad,” resulting in “chaos and turmoil” as hundreds of books are mislabeled “obscene” and taken from students who need access to them. The Authors Guild was also quoted in the press release, pointing out how book bans attack “authors’ reputation by creating the false notion that there is something unseemly about their books.”

In addition, the suit cites Miller v. California and Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville in its argument that HB 1069 is unconstitutional. Both were landmark cases in which the Supreme Court established that material can only be defined as “obscene” if it lacks any “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value” and that the government cannot censor artistic expressions simply because they offend some people. The suit seeks to rule HB 1069 unconstitutional and put the power back in the hands of librarians and educators to use their expertise to evaluate books in a non-biased manner.

While authors, civil rights groups, and booksellers have filed lawsuits against book-ban legislation before, this is one of the first times that some of the world’s most powerful publishers are joining the effort. Influential organizations joining the fight against book bans raise the hope of progress, while the lawsuit, if successful, has the potential to put an end to some of the country’s most notorious book-banning legislation.