VOL. I · OCT. 17, 2026 ● NO. 07 ● FREE SPEECH & THE FIRST AMENDMENT
The North Star
“Right is of no Sex — Truth is of no Color.”
After Frederick Douglass, 1847
The free-speech desk — the First Amendment, censorship, and the right to be heard, tracked ruling by ruling across the fifty states.
Book Bans
Judge Guts Florida Book-Ban Law, Rejecting Government-Speech Defense
A federal court struck down key parts of Florida's HB 1069, holding that rapid, viewpoint-driven removals of school library books violate students' First Amendment right of access to ideas.
Rows of school library shelves with a gap where books have been removed, evoking Florida's contested HB 1069 removals. — AI-generated illustration
On August 13, 2025, U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza invalidated portions of Florida's HB 1069, the statute used to pull books from school library shelves. The court rejected the state's argument that library curation is government speech immune from First Amendment review.
The nation's largest book publishers, the Authors Guild, individual authors and parents challenged the law, which enabled swift removals of titles objected to as sexual or inappropriate. Judge Mendoza found the removal provisions unconstitutionally restricted access to protected material.
Crucially, the court refused to treat book removals as government speech, warning that such a label would let officials purge disfavored viewpoints under cover of curation. The ruling preserved narrower provisions allowing genuine obscenity challenges under the Miller test.
Florida appealed the decision in September 2025. The case is among the most closely watched in the national fight over school-library censorship.
1069
House bill at issue
Slapping the label of government speech on book removals only serves to stifle the disfavored viewpoints.
— U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza, Penguin Random House v. Gibson
Video caption
How the case moved
2023
Florida enacts HB 1069 expanding book-objection procedures.
2024
Penguin Random House and others sue the state.
AUG 2025
Judge Mendoza strikes down the rapid-removal provisions.
SEP 2025
Florida files an appeal.
✓ Fact check
Claim
“Removing a book from a school library is just curation and raises no First Amendment concerns.”
Reality
Courts have long held that removing library books to suppress disfavored ideas can violate students' First Amendment rights.
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Legal References
Bluebook citation · cases, statutes & the record
Primary legal authority cited in this report. Links go to the public record where one exists.
[1]
Penguin Random House v. Gibson, No. 5:23-cv-00478 ¶ source
M.D. Fla. 2025
¶
Academic References
ABA / law-review style · secondary scholarship
Secondary scholarship that informs the analysis.
[1]
Reference text
Author bio
Source: The Free Speech Center
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