Groups File Amicus Briefs in Vamos Case

http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2006abc/december2006/vamosamicus.cfm

$node.absurl

$node.contribution("Title")

$node.absurl

Posted December 1, 2006.

Groups File Amicus Briefs in Vamos Case

The Freedom to Read Foundation has joined the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and other groups in filing an amicus brief in the lawsuit against the Miami–Dade County School Board for ordering in June the removal of the children’s picture book Vamos a Cuba from all district media centers. The brief, filed November 21 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, argues that the book and its English-language counterpart A Visit to Cuba are “educationally significant and developmentally appropriate” for its school-age audience.

U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold had upheld July 24 the ACLU of Florida’s request for an injunction against the decision on First Amendment grounds, but the school board appealed the case, arguing that the book inaccurately portrayed life in Cuba. The FTRF brief contends that “Removal decisions such as the one at issue in this case—which blatantly ignore the recommendations of professional librarians and educators—are not based on objective criteria but rather on subjective, politically motivated agendas.”

The American Center for Law and Justice, a nonprofit law firm founded in 1990 by televangelist Pat Robertson, also filed an amicus brief with the appeals court October 23 that supports the Miami-Dade school board’s decision to ensure that its students receive factual information.

Posted December 1, 2006.