For Immediate Release: December 13, 2023

Contact: Bobby Block

[email protected]

850-224-4555

The First Amendment Foundation, Florida’s defender of open government and free expression for nearly 40 years, proudly announces the release of Banned Books: A Florida Citizen’s Guide to Legal Rights and Pushback to help people fight against the removal of books from public schools and libraries.

Drawn up in partnership with Foundation 451 and the Florida Freedom to Read project, the 20-page guidebook aims to help individuals and communities navigate the laws that protect free speech as well as those created to challenge titles around the state.

“It’s a practical and pragmatic guide, written in simple language to help people understand the law and resist efforts to remove books from our schools,” said Bobby Block, Executive Director of the First Amendment Foundation. “Controlling what people read, no matter how well-intentioned, ultimately harms us as a society.”

So far, more than 300 books have been removed from Florida public schools, prisons, and other library shelves. These include classics, poetry, history, religious texts, and celebrated stories of our human existence. And more titles are being challenged every week around the state.

“Book bans are a form of censorship,” said Edward Birk, Chair of the First Amendment Foundation. “There are better ways to protect the minds of young people,”

The guidebook is not only a legal roadmap to book challenges, but step-by-step instructions and advice from the founders of Foundation 451, Adam Tritt and Lisa Harrington, about how to set up free-banned book libraries in your communities for students and their families.

“When a government or other institution reduces access to information and replaces it with only what it wants you to know, that is indoctrination,” said Tritt. “It is imperative we send the message, ‘This is unacceptable.’”

Please distribute this book to anyone who you believe may benefit from its content. If you need support or assistance or would like to get involved, contact the First Amendment Foundation at [email protected] or (850) 224-4555.

*You can now purchase a physical copy of the First Amendment Foundation’s Banned Book Guide, with a new section on talking points and an appendix of easy-to-use links! For only $10 plus shipping, you can have your guidebook delivered by the New Year.

You can also still download our printable version of the guide and one-pager “cheat sheet” for free!*

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The First Amendment Foundation is a non-profit organization created in 1985 to safeguard free speech, free press, and open government in Florida from being undermined or diluted during changing times. Our purpose is to protect and advance the public’s constitutional right to open government and access to public records for an informed citizenry and strong democracy. Please support our mission with a donation at FloridaFAF.org.

Want a printable version? We’ve got you covered. Need a one-pager? Here it is! Would you like to purchase the printed version to distribute? We’re on it; check back with us later this week.

By Bobby Block

Imagine a world in which newspapers have been bankrupted and shuttered.

Imagine that Reddit, the Drudge Report and Red Pill are no more and that social media platforms forbid political discussion of any stripe.

Imagine that while some television and radio news show still exist, they only feature endless stories about cats and dogs, and fawning coverage of those in power.

Imagine a world in which robust political discussion has been cowed into silence, and all government business takes place behind closed doors, and nobody can talk about what might have transpired in this darkness unless they want to end up broke, unemployed and homeless.

This is not the backdrop of some new Netflix drama about a dystopian future in a galaxy, far, far away. No. This is a possible reality right here in Florida if lawmakers succeed in passing a bill that would lower the threshold for the rich and powerful to sue anybody who says something they don’t like.

HB991 is officially called the Defamation, False Light, and Unauthorized Publication of Name or Likenesses Bill. But First Amendment activists like me who have read it call it the “Death to Public Discourse Bill.”

Key supporters of HB 991 want you to believe the legislation is about taming the excesses of the “liberal corporate” media by giving the “little guy” a chance to avenge “bad” coverage. But the truth of this bill is all about making it easier for government officials and their rich and powerful allies to use the courts to punish those who criticize them.

And despite the belief by some conservatives that HB991 would only affect the New York Times, the Miami Herald and CNN if it were to become law, the reality is no information outlet would be spared the depredations of punitive lawsuits under its provisions. Fox, Newsmax, conservative talk radio stations will all feel the sting of this new law as public figures across the political spectrum look to exact their vengeance against inconvenient news coverage and commentary. The fallout would just as likely crush Fox’s Tucker Carlson as it would the NYT’s Paul Krugman.

More than that, this legislation would also subject bloggers, community groups, average users of social media – in short everybody who wants their voices heard – to the untold financial and emotional burdens of lawsuits.

And the way HB991 is currently written, a story doesn’t have to be wrong and damaging to an official to land a reporter, blogger or housewife Facebooker in court. It can merely cast the subject of the story in an unfavorable light.

Gov. Ron DeSantis called for a new defamation bill, saying he wanted to give the Average Joe a chance to clear their name when the press sullies it. But the truth is that defamation and libel suits have never been the tools of ordinary people who often don’t have the means to go to court. These lawsuits have all too often been part of the repertoire of powerful figures seeking to bring their critics to heel.

This legislation is hardly a novel move. Throughout history, tyrants on the left and the right as well as powerful Robber Barons have often moved to crush the press in order to control messaging. And the easiest way to crush the press is to weaponize the law against commentators just as HB991 seeks to do.

For those who doubt this could be the rationale of HB991’s supporters, look at recent rules by the state forbidding events that do not “align with the state’s mission” from taking place at the Florida Capitol. This pre-vetting of purpose is another clear violation of Floridians’ First Amendment rights to gather and have their voices heard. Looking at these measures, one can only conclude that free speech is under attack in Florida.

Contrary to what its supporters will say over the next weeks, HB991 is not good for Florida or Floridians. It’s not good for Americans as a whole. It would establish a dangerous precedent that impacts all of us by chilling the kind of free discussion that only takes place in free societies.

Even conservative Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito noted this in a ruling a few years ago, writing: “The core purpose of the constitutional protection of freedom of expression is to ensure that all opinions on such issues have a chance to be heard and considered.”

So, please protect your freedom of speech by using yours to tell your representatives to throw out HB991.

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Bobby Block is Executive Director of the First Amendment Foundation which was founded in 1985 to advance and protect Floridians’ rights to free speech, open government and public records.

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