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Mendoza, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, also said
that the state's interpretation of the 2023 law was
unconstitutional.
Among the books that had been removed from central Florida
schools were classics like Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s
Tale,” Richard Wright’s “Native Son” and Kurt Vonnegut’s
“Slaughterhouse-Five.”
“Historically, librarians curate their collections based on
their sound discretion not based on decrees from on high,” the
judge said. “There is also evidence that the statute has swept
up more non-obscene books than just the ones referenced here."
After the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature passed the
law, school officials worried that any sexual content was
questionable, a belief that was enforced by new state training
that urged librarians to err on the side of caution. Last year,
Florida led the nation with 4,500 removals of school books.
Under the judge's ruling, schools should revert back to a U.S.
Supreme Court precedent in which the test is whether an average
person would find the work prurient as a whole; whether it
depicts sexual content in an offensive way; and whether the work
lacks literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
The lawsuit was brought by some of the nation's largest book
publishers and some of the authors whose books had been removed
from central Florida school libraries, as well as the parents of
schoolchildren who tried to access books that were removed.
The author plaintiffs included Angie Thomas, author of “The Hate
U Give"; Jodi Picoult, author of “My Sister's Keeper"; John
Green, author of ”The Fault in Our Stars"; and Julia Alvarez,
author of “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents.” The
publisher plaintiffs included Penguin Random House, Hachette
Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishing and
Simon and Schuster.
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