The Fight Over Banning Books in Florida

In Florida, a group called Moms for Liberty emerged as a response to COVID rules in public schools. Initially concerned with masking and closures, the focus shifted to the presence of pornography and objectionable ideas in school libraries. Previously, a complaint process allowed for a committee to assess a book's literary merit, but Moms for Liberty felt this was inadequate. They lobbied for a new law that allows a book to be immediately removed from libraries if a passage is deemed offensive when read aloud at a school board meeting. Critics argue that taking passages out of context can distort the true themes of the books.