Book Removals

The situation raises questions about the balance between local autonomy and executive power in Florida.

In his ruling, the judge wrote the law “does not evaluate the work to determine if it has any holistic value” and “does not specify what level of detail ‘describes sexual conduct.’”

“Blankets” by Craig Thompson and “Identical” by Ellen Hopkins were pulled from shelves In Hillsborough County schools. That makes 57, with more than 500 awaiting review.

The judge ruled the law is unconstitutional as it infringes on the First Amendment rights of students.

The Orlando-based federal judge focused primarily on part of the legislation that seeks to prevent the availability of reading material that “describes sexual conduct.”

The Escambia school board voted 5-0 to remove hundreds of books without review. The books in question come from the Florida Department of Education's book removal list.

Schools Superintendent Van Ayres said he trusts his media specialists and will have inappropriate materials yanked from shelves ahead of the 2025-26 school year.

Florida lawmakers voted to extend the regular session to June 6 in order to complete the budget and related items. But they will take at least a week off before returning to Tallahassee.

Republicans say the bill would keep age-inappropriate books off school shelves. Opponents warn it would dramatically boost book removals in Florida — again.

According to PEN America, Florida has led the nation in book removals for the past two years.

Most on the American Library Association's list include explicit descriptions of sexual enounters, along with LGBTQ+ themes and characters, sexual abuse, and references to drug addiction, racism and slavery.

Under the legislation, school district committees reviewing a challenged book wouldn’t be able to consider literary or artistic merit when deciding to remove it.