A three-year battle that pitted claims of censorship against the right of Miami-Dade schools to remove from their shelves a book that portrays an inaccurate view of life in Cuba ended Monday on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a huge win for the Miami-Dade School Board, the high court declined to take up the case -- leaving in place a decision by a federal appeals court that said the board's right to set educational standards is not equivalent to censorship.
``This is a great victory for the School Board and for Cuban Americans,'' said board member Perla Tabares Hantman, who from the beginning supported removing the book Vamos a Cuba from school libraries.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which sued the district after the book was removed from school shelves, called the Supreme Court's decision not to take up the case ``a blow to the First Amendment.''
``What the Supreme Court did was to give the School Board the power to cleanse the library shelves of various books,'' executive director Howard Simon said. ``That sets a dangerous precedent.''
Here's our prior coverage of the book banning case.
Bob Norman is churning out stories about Rothstein so fast that the rest of us can't keep up. It's really incredible what he is doing over at his blog. The investigation, insight, etc. Even if you are exhausted over the Rothstein coverage, his blog is worth a read. Here's one story about 1000 times chai. You can't make this stuff up!And if you aren't watching Curb this season, you are really missing out. Here's a taste of this week's episode (be careful watching at work; rated R):
