MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Rickey Stokes News)
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has joined a 21-state coalition of attorneys general in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in support of a Florida law aimed at preventing sexually graphic materials from being made available to students in public-school libraries.
The brief challenges a recent ruling by a federal district court in Florida that determined the law likely violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment and temporarily blocked the state from enforcing it.
In their filing, the coalition argues that decisions regarding which materials are placed in public-school libraries constitute “government speech” under the First Amendment. As such, the states maintain that schools are not constitutionally required to provide sexually explicit content to K-12 students.
“It should be common sense that the First Amendment does not require public schools to fill their library shelves with graphic books depicting sex acts,” Marshall said in a statement. “But we are at the point where such commonsense interpretations have to be spelled out in legal briefs, so we are proud to help Florida defend its law and we call on the Eleventh Circuit to quickly correct the decision of the district court.”
The brief was led by Arkansas and includes attorneys general from Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Tennessee.
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to review the case in the coming months
