The authors of the children’s book And Tango Makes Three are urging a federal appeals court to reverse a ruling that allowed the Escambia County School Board to pull their work from library shelves, arguing the removal amounts to unconstitutional censorship.
In a 57-page brief filed last week with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, authors Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, joined by a student plaintiff, contend that the board’s 2023 decision to remove the book was driven by a dislike of its content regarding same-sex adoptive parents.
The case centers on the true story of two male penguins raising a chick at New York’s Central Park Zoo. The plaintiffs are asking the appellate court to overturn a September ruling by Chief U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor, who sided with the school board.
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Attorneys for the group argue that while librarians have discretion in selecting materials, that power has limits. They stated that the board cannot remove Tango simply because it “disagrees with its message of tolerance.”
“A Democratic mayor could not order the removal of public library books because he disagrees with the books’ Republican ideas,” the brief states. “The line between lawful discretion and constitutional violation is drawn by the First Amendment’s prohibition on viewpoint discrimination.”
Judge Winsor’s earlier ruling dismissed the idea that the removal violated free speech rights. He wrote that the government does not create a public forum for authors merely by purchasing their books, noting that the board’s decision “does not, of course, keep the book… from B.G. or any other student.” He concluded that the board simply decided students would have to access the text elsewhere.
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However, the authors’ appeal warns of dangerous precedents if the lower court’s decision stands. The brief argues that allowing officials to purge libraries based on ideological disagreements would “weaponize the machinery of education to entrench political power.”
This legal battle is part of a wider wave of disputes across Florida involving book challenges. A broader lawsuit involving Penguin Random House and PEN America against Escambia County is still pending.
The Escambia County School Board has until February 17 to file its response.
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