Parents Elevate Concerns in Important First Amendment Case
Tallahassee, FL - Three parents of Florida public school students have filed an appeal challenging the dismissal of their lawsuit, which contends that the State of Florida violated their constitutional rights by denying them the opportunity to contest school board decisions to remove books—while permitting parents who support such removals to participate in the process.
“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,” said Stephana Ferrell, a Florida public schools parent and plaintiff in this case who requested review of her child’s school district’s decision to remove a book — and was denied. “We will use every legal option available to us to stop this unfair and unconstitutional law.”
“Parents like myself, who want our children to benefit from professionally curated collections in our public schools, should not be forced to sit idly by while censorship activists successfully advocate for the removal of one book after the next from our schools. We should have the same rights as other parents,” said plaintiff Nancy Tray.
“Florida is called the ‘Free State,’ but as a parent, I see a system where only some voices matter,” added 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.”
First filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida on June 6, 2024, the lawsuit argued that the 2023 Florida Legislature’s H.B. 1069 and its implementing rules discriminate against parents who oppose book bans and censorship. The law, which took effect in 2023, gives parents who favor censorship a formal process to challenge a local school board’s decision to keep a book on school shelves, while parents opposed to censorship are excluded from that same review process. The plaintiffs, parents of students in Florida public schools, want the State to review their local school boards’ decisions to remove or restrict books in their children’s school districts, and do not have access to seek that review. However, the District Court ruled in favor of the State and dismissed the case in January 2025, Today’s filing represents the plaintiffs’ appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
The affected parents are represented by Democracy Forward, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Caplan Cobb LLC.
“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. Florida’s exclusionary laws are a clear violation of parents’ First Amendment rights. We will continue to support the brave parents who are fighting for fairness and a Florida where kids have the freedom to access books in libraries,” said Robin Thurston, Legal Director at Democracy Forward.
“School bookshelves shouldn’t be controlled exclusively by parents who support censorship. That’s viewpoint discrimination, plain and simple. Denying parents the right to challenge book bans is an attack on their First Amendment rights,” said Daniel Tilley, Legal Director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.
"Public schools are vital for democracy. Allowing all parents an equal voice about what books are on their schools' shelves is critical to that essential function," said Sam Boyd, Senior Supervising Attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
"We are honored to fight for the rights of parents and the fundamental safeguards guaranteed by the First Amendment,” said Jarred Klorfein, Partner at Caplan Cobb LLC.
Democracy Forward’s legal team working on the case includes Brooke Menschel, Mark Samburg, and Robin Thurston.
The case is Tray, et al. v. Florida State Board of Education, et al. For more information, please visit here, and to read the opening brief, please click here.
