Florida Court Rejects Free Speech Argument in Book Removal Case
A district court in Florida on Monday ruled that the Escambia County school board had not violated the First Amendment rights of students or authors when it removed a children’s book from its school libraries called “And Tango Makes Three,” which is about two gay male penguins raising a penguin chick.
The lawsuit was brought by the picture book’s authors, Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, and an elementary school student who was identified by the initials B.G. The suit maintained that Escambia removed the book because it disagreed with its viewpoint, a decision which infringed on their free speech rights.
“There is no dispute,” the plaintiffs said in a court filing, that the book was removed “because ‘Tango’ depicts a same-sex relationship.”
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