For Immediate Release:
December 22, 2025
For press inquiries only, contact:
Amanda Priest (334) 322-5694
William Califf (334) 604-3230
(Montgomery, Ala) – Attorney General Steve Marshall has joined a 21-state coalition of attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in support of Florida’s law that ensures that public-school libraries do not provide sexually graphic materials to their young students.
A federal district court in Florida ruled that the law likely violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment and entered an order prohibiting Florida from enforcing the law. The states’ brief argues that decisions about what materials to make available in a school library are considered “government speech” under the First Amendment and that schools are not required to make sexually graphic materials available 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. 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 defends its law and we call on the Eleventh Circuit to quickly correct the decision of the district court,” Attorney General Marshall stated.
Joining Attorney General Marshall in the Arkansas-led brief are attorneys general from Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
To read the letter, click here.
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