A group that includes six book publishers and others has sued the state of Florida, and California has passed a Freedom to Read Act, in continuing state-level battles over book bans in schools and libraries.
The Florida lawsuit, brought by Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster, and Sourcebooks along with the Authors Guild, a group of bestselling authors, two students, and two parents, targets Florida House Bill 1069, which requires school libraries to remove books deemed to contain “sexual conduct” after even one complaint, with no requirement that the book be reviewed or returned to circulation if found to be unobjectionable.
No consideration of the overall value of the book can be included in determinations of whether the book should be offered, which runs counter to the existing case law on obscenity, specifically the “Miller test” from Miller v. California, which requires that works must be considered as a whole for their literary, artistic, political, and scientific value in a determination of obscenity, the publishers argue.
Meanwhile, on the opposite coast, the California state legislature has passed the Freedom to Read Act, AB 1825, which prohibits public libraries from banning books based on partisan or political reasons, viewpoint discrimination, gender, sexual identity, religion, disability, or on the basis that the books contain inclusive and diverse perspectives. The new law, which awaits the governor’s signature, follows the passing of AB 1078 last year, which laid out similar rules for schools.
The issue is an important one for graphic novel and manga publishers, which have had an increasing presence in libraries over the past 20 years and have come to rely on those sales as part of their publishing plans.
Because they involve visual depictions, graphic novels are among the most challenged titles, including three titles, Gender Queer, Flamer, and Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human, in the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023 (see “Three Graphic Novels in Top 10 Most Challenged“), according to the American Library Association.
Source: ICv2
