February 5, 2009
MIAMI – The following statement can be attributed to Howard Simon, ACLU of Florida Executive Director:
“We believe that the judges on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals panel have twisted the law into a pretzel to serve the personal and political interests of the Miami-Dade School Board members who voted to ban these books from the public school libraries. Children in the Miami-Dade school system will be the losers if bureaucrats have their way. Unconstitutional distortions of the law such as this could open the floodgate for people in powerful positions to censor and ban information just because they don’t personally approve of the message. The ACLU will move forward to protect free speech in America’s public schools through one of the multiple legal options that are available.
“Censorship is censorship no matter what words you use to describe it. If every parent and administrator had the chance to remove books that contain ideas they don’t agree with, the library shelves would be empty. The answer in a free society is always to add more speech, not limit it.”
