ABFFE and NCAC Celebrate Victories in Michigan and Iowa

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) welcomed decisions in Howell, Michigan, and Missouri Valley, Iowa, to retain challenged books in school classrooms. On March 8, federal, state and local prosecutors upheld the right of students in Howell, Michigan, to read Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Richard Wright’s Black Boy, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, and Augusten Burroughs’ Running with Scissors. U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Murphy III and Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox announced that there was no merit in the complaints made by the Livingston Organization for Values in Education (“LOVE”) that the books are obscene. Murphy, who had referred the books to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a decision, declared that neither “[t]he material submitted nor its inclusion as part of the school’s required English curriculum constitutes a violation of federal law.” In early February, ABFFE and NCAC joined a number of free speech advocates in sending a letter to the school board opposing the censorship of the books targeted by LOVE. A copy of the letter is online here. To read the most recent press coverage, click here and here.

On March 12, the Missouri Valley School District book review committee in Iowa voted 3-2 to keep Chris Crutcher's novel, Whale Talk, in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade classrooms, provided that an alternative text be made available to individual students when requested by parents. ABFFE and NCAC opposed efforts to remove the book in a March 2 letter to the Superintendent and the book review committee, urging them to retain the book. The initial objections were raised by Pastor Nathan Slaughter of the Missouri Valley Church of Christ, who claimed that the language of the book was inappropriate for high school students. To read the letter, click here. To read the latest press coverage, click here.

ABFFE and NCAC File Brief in 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' Case

ABFFE and NCAC filed an amicus brief in a student speech case, Morse v. Frederick, heard by the United States Supreme Court on March 19. The groups argue that Joseph Frederick, a Juneau, Alaska, high school student punished in 2002 for displaying a 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' banner at an Olympic torch parade that took place off of school property, should be afforded the full protection of the First Amendment. Deborah Morse, Juneau-Douglas High School principal, claimed the reference to drug paraphernalia violated school policy, and she suspended Fredericks when he refused to drop the banner. While a district court judge held that the school could prohibit the banner’s message, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling, saying the banner did not cause substantial disruption to the school. ABFFE and NCAC argue that the school district, represented by Kenneth Starr, is asking the Supreme Court to extend school authority beyond school premises. Frederick is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). To read the ABFFE/NCAC amicus brief in this case, click here. To read a recent New York Times article on the case, click here.

ABFFE Files Amicus in Ideological Exclusion Case

ABFFE has filed another amicus brief in a case involving a provision in the PATRIOT Act that allows the government to refuse entry to foreign scholars because of their political views. The provision has been challenged in a lawsuit filed by the PEN American Center, the American Academy of Religion, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), and the ACLU in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. PEN and its co-plaintiffs originally went to court in January 2006, after government officials denied Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss Muslim academic and theologian, entry to the United States under a PATRIOT Act provision barring those who “endorse or espouse terrorism.” The groups' new motion asks the court to rule that the visa denial violates the First Amendment rights of Americans to hear directly from Professor Ramadan and engage him in face-to-face debate, and that the ideological exclusion provision in general preempts dialogue and debate with foreign scholars whose speech the government dislikes. To read more, click here.

ABFFE Replies to Humane Society in the San Francisco Chronicle

On March 2, The San Francisco Chronicle published an op-ed by ABFFE President Chris Finan arguing that a lawsuit by the Humane Society of the United States against Amazon.com would suppress speech protected by the First Amendment. The Humane Society is trying to force Amazon.com to halt the sale of subscriptions to two magazines about cockfighting. They are also suing the publishers of the magazines, The Feathered Warrior and The Gamecock. "Even the most well meaning organization makes a terrible mistake when it attempts to advance its mission through censorship," Finan writes. To read ABFFE's op-ed, click here. The ABFFE piece was a response to an op-ed by the Humane Society defending its lawsuit. To read it, click here.

ABFFE Welcomes Withdrawal of Kyl Amendment

ABFFE welcomed the withdrawal on February 28 of an overbroad amendment to the Federal Agency Data Mining Reporting Act that would unconstitutionally and unnecessarily expand existing espionage statues. On February 27, ABFFE signed a letter urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject it. The amendment would have criminalized disclosure to the public of any classified information "concerning efforts by the United States to identify, investigate, or prevent terrorist activity." ABFFE was joined by the and 36 public interest, press and First Amendment advocacy groups, including AAUP, ACLU, the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, the Media Law Resource Center, and NCAC in calling the committee to reject the amendment. To read the letter, click here.