In the face of a federal lawsuit, a Florida school district argues it has the right under the First Amendment to remove certain books from school libraries. The book in the case is titled “And Tango Makes Three,” and it is co-authored by the plaintiffs, Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.
The book is about two male penguins living at the Central Park Zoo and raising a baby chick together.
In the fall of 2023, Nassau County schools removed 36 books from school shelves after the conservative group Citizens Defending Freedom argued they contained inappropriate or offensive material.
In the lawsuit, the co-authors of the book accuse Nassau County schools of violating their First Amendment right to free speech when removing the book from school libraries. Parnell and Richardson wrote that the school board made the decision “for a single, unconstitutional reason: their disagreement with the book’s content.” The authors said that the board “thereby deprived the author plaintiffs of their target.”
The school board responded in a court filing, saying it acted “pursuant to and within the discretion granted by Florida law” when removing those books from circulation. The board requested for the suit to be dismissed.
School officials claim their removal of the book is protected by the First Amendment, writing their “actions constitute government speech for which no First Amendment protections attach.”
The officials also argued “there is no recognized right to receive information in public school libraries under the First Amendment.”
The officials claimed they didn’t infringe on the co-authors’ First Amendment rights. Their filing said the “defendants’ actions have done nothing to prohibit plaintiffs Parnell and Richardson from writing, editing, publishing, promoting, marketing or otherwise expressing the speech they claim has been restricted.”
