A bill that would make it easier to remove books in K-12 schools and libraries after they’ve been objected to on the grounds of obscenity has passed its first committee in the Florida House.
Under the proposed legislation, committees reviewing a book that’s been objected to wouldn’t be able to consider its literary or artistic merit when considering whether to ban it. Additionally, books that depict or describe sex in any way would have to be removed within five days of an objection and remain unavailable throughout the review process.
Republican State Representative Doug Bankson, who represents part of Orange and Seminole counties in Central Florida introduced the bill.
“I think the desire is to protect our children, because it is about protecting their minds and seeing them be able to be educated in the best possible way,” said Bankson.
House Bill 1539 would also require the Florida Department of Education to monitor each district's compliance with these new rules through audits and other reports.
If a district is found to be noncompliant, then the department would send the district a warning letter and may withhold funding until the district complies.
The district would be required to submit a corrective action plan and additional sanctions could be placed on the district if it doesn’t show progress made toward this plan.
Democratic State Representative LaVon Bracy Davis voted against the bill. She said it’s unconstitutional, and fails to uphold the Miller Test, a legal standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether material is obscene.
“It fails the third prong of the Miller Test and is a way to just ban more books," said Bracy Davis.
A companion bill in the Florida Senate was temporarily postponed due to concerns regarding its constitutionality.
Only sexual education textbooks and other materials approved by the Florida Department of Education would be exempt.
In 2023, a Florida law took effect that required every school district in the state to have a process in place for challenging books. What followed were thousands of book challenges. PEN America ranked Florida number one in the country for book bans in 2023 and 2024.
In 2024, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis urged the legislature to put some restrictions in place for these objections after books like the Bible and classroom dictionaries were challenged.
Legislators complied, limiting the number of challenges residents without children in a district could make, to one per month.
But that same year, the Florida Department of Education released a list of over 700 books that had been removed from classrooms and libraries throughout the state. Titles included Rupi Kaur’s poetry anthologies, Milk and Honey and The Sun and Her Flowers and classics like The Handmaid’s Tale.
Both these new bills moving through the Florida Senate and House would define books as harmful to minors as, “any reproduction, imitation, characterization, description, exhibition, presentation, or representation, of whatever kind or form, depicting nudity, sexual conduct, or sexual excitement.”
This content must also pass the following test to be considered objectionable:
a. “Predominantly appeals to prurient, shameful, or morbid interest; and
b. Is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material or conduct for minors.”
Governor Ron DeSantis and other Republicans who support these restrictions say that books in schools need to be age-appropriate for children.
Opponents say making it harder to read books, including some that are required reading in many other states across the country, could hurt kids academically, and put Florida students at a disadvantage.
