Steve Marshall has joined a coalition of attorneys general from 21 states in filing an amicus brief backing Florida’s law designed to prevent sexually graphic materials from being available in public school libraries.
The brief was submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit after a federal district court in Florida ruled that the law likely violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment and blocked the state from enforcing it.
The coalition argues that decisions regarding which materials appear in public school libraries constitute “government speech” and that schools are not required to provide sexually explicit content to K-12 students.
“It should be common sense that the First Amendment does not require public schools to fill their library shelves with graphic books depicting sex acts,” Marshall said. “But we are at the point where such commonsense interpretations have to be spelled out in legal briefs, so we are proud to help Florida defend its law and we call on the Eleventh Circuit to quickly correct the decision of the district court.”
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The states maintain that public schools have the authority to determine age-appropriate educational materials and that the Constitution does not require granting minors access to explicit content.
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to take up the case in the coming months.
