In an important victory for students, parents, authors, and the First Amendment, on Jan. 12, Federal Judge T. Kent Wetherell rejected a bid to dismiss a lawsuit challenging decisions by the Escambia County School Board to remove or restrict access to hundreds of library books.
Pen America’s Katie Blankenship discussed the importance of the ruling and the case this morning on “Real News with Rick Outzen.”
She explained the state government tried to claim removing the books fell under the government speech doctrine that is immune from First Amendment scrutiny.
“Judge Wetherell rejected that outright. He called it a ‘dangerous precedent’ should he find that way,” Blankenship said. “He not only said no for the motion to dismiss , but he went far enough to say I don’t see this argument holding any water as the case goes forward. So that’s a massive rolling win for this case.”
