Lawsuit pushes against the removel of books from a school library in Escambia, Florida. Federal lawsuit

Read the whole thing. So glad to see some legal fighting back about these absurd book bans

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
PENSACOLA DIVISION
PEN AMERICAN CENTER, INC.,
SARAH BRANNEN, LINDSAY
DURTSCHI, on behalf of herself and her
minor children, GEORGE M. JOHNSON,
DAVID LEVITHAN, KYLE LUKOFF,
ANN NOVAKOWSKI, on behalf of
herself and her minor child, PENGUIN
RANDOM HOUSE LLC, and ASHLEY
HOPE PÉREZ,
Plaintiffs,
v.
ESCAMBIA COUNTY SCHOOL
DISTRICT, and the ESCAMBIA
COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD,
Defendants.
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Case No. 3:23-cv-10385
JURY TRIAL DEMANDED
COMPLAINT
This lawsuit, on behalf of PEN American Center, Inc. (“PEN America”),
select book authors, a book publisher, and two parents of students attending public
schools in Escambia County (collectively, “Plaintiffs”), challenges the decisions of
the Escambia County School District (the “School District”) and the Escambia
County School Board (the “School Board”) to remove and restrict books from public
school libraries. The School District and the School Board have done so based on
their disagreement with the ideas expressed in those books. They have repeatedly

ignored their existing policies for review. In every decision to remove a book, the
School District has sided with a challenger expressing openly discriminatory bases
for challenge, overruling the recommendations of review committees at the school
and district levels. These restrictions and removals have disproportionately targeted
books by or about people of color and/or LGBTQ people, and have prescribed an
orthodoxy of opinion that violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments. In support
of their claims, Plaintiffs allege as follows:
I. INTRODUCTION
1. The Supreme Court has long recognized that “[t]he vigilant protection
of constitutional freedoms is nowhere more vital than in the community of American
schools,” which serve as a “marketplace of ideas.” Tinker v. Des Moines Indep.
Cmty. Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 512 (1969). That is because “the Nation’s future
depends upon leaders trained through wide exposure to that robust exchange of ideas
which discovers truth out of a multitude of tongues, rather than through any kind of
authoritative selection.” Id. (cleaned up).
2. School libraries, where students discover new areas of interest and
engage in voluntary inquiry outside the context of required curriculum, are an
essential part of this exchange of ideas.
3. While school administrators “possess significant discretion to
determine the content of their school libraries,” that “discretion may not be exercised

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in a narrowly partisan or political manner.” Board of Education v. Pico, 457 U.S.
853, 870 (1982) (emphasis added). That is because “[o]ur Constitution does not
permit the official suppression of ideas.” Id. at 871. Accordingly, the First
Amendment bars a school district from removing books from school libraries, or
restricting access to such books, based on political or ideological disagreement with
the ideas they express.
4. Plaintiffs bring this lawsuit because that is exactly what is happening in
Escambia County. Books are being ordered removed from libraries, or subject to
restricted access within those libraries, based on an ideologically driven campaign
to push certain ideas out of schools. Further, the School Board is ordering the
removal against the recommendations of experts within the School District. This
disregard for professional guidance underscores that the agendas underlying the
removals are ideological and political, not pedagogical.
5. As a result, the School District and the School Board are depriving
students of access to a wide range of viewpoints, and depriving the authors of the
removed and restricted books of the opportunity to engage with readers and
disseminate their ideas to their intended audiences. Such viewpoint discrimination

violates the First Amendment