Three parents are appealing the dismissal of a lawsuit contending Florida violated their constitutional right to contest the removal of books from public schools.
The target of the initial lawsuit and the appeal is a 2023 state law providing a formal process for parents who want books banned, but denying participation to parents opposed to removals.
Tray v. Florida State Board of Education was filed in June 2024 following the passage of House Bill 1069, an education bill mandating the removal of books with “pornographic” content or depictions of “sexual conduct.”
The legislation also permits the banning of teaching materials if parental objections are denied by school districts but affirmed in a state review process. “The procedures must reinforce the fundamental right of parents to make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of their children,” the measure states.
But parents who object to books and curriculum being removed said there’s no provision for them to have equal input.
“The State Review Process is textbook viewpoint discrimination.”
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida ruled in the state’s favor in January, prompting the appellate filing last month with legal representation by Democracy Forward, the Southern Poverty Law Center and American Civil Liberties Union.
“The State Review Process is textbook viewpoint discrimination,” plaintiffs argue in the opening brief filed with the U.S. 11th District Court of Appeals in Atlanta. “The price of entry is espousing the state’s favored view — that books should be removed from schools. The process is open only to parents who hold that view and who disagree with a district’s decision to retain such books. Because the parents here hold the opposite view — that certain books should be available in schools — the state barred them from the State Review Process. That is unconstitutional.”
Plaintiffs vowed to pursue every legal option available to them to fight for fairness and constitutionality in public education.
“Florida is called the ‘Free State,’ but as a parent, I see a system where only some voices matter,” said plaintiff Anne Watts Tressler. “If you want to ban a book, you get a process and multiple appeals. If you want your child to read that book, you get nothing. No process, no recourse, no voice.”
Parent Stephana Ferrell was denied after requesting to review a school district’s decision to remove a book from her child’s school.
Robin Thurston
“The DeSantis administration’s Board of Education is stealing important decisions away from parents and allowing those with the most extreme positions to decide what information our kids have access to,” she said.
The fight against book bans is also a fight for the Constitution itself, plaintiffs’ attorneys explained.
“Access to books is essential to our democracy, and silencing parents advocating for that access for their kids, while putting a thumb on the scale of censorship, sets a dangerous precedent for our most basic freedoms and democratic ideals,” said Robin Thurston, legal director at Democracy Forward. “Florida’s exclusionary laws are a clear violation of parents’ First Amendment rights.
“School bookshelves shouldn’t be controlled exclusively by parents who support censorship. That’s viewpoint discrimination, plain and simple,” said Daniel Tilley, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. “Denying parents the right to challenge book bans is an attack on their First Amendment rights.”