Vamos a Cuba

Gotta love Miami -- Denials of cert are rarely newsworthy, especially front-page newsworthy. But the cert denial re Vamos a Cuba landed on the front page of the Miami Herald:


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):

11th Circuit approves book banning -- case not over yet

By Julie Kay

So the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in the controversial, three-year-old case of book banning brought by the ACLU against the Miami-Dade School Board. The court, in a 2-1 opinion, reversed U.S. Circuit Court Judge Alan Gold and ruled that the School Board was within its rights to yank the childrens' book Vamos a Cuba due to "factual inaccuracies."
The School Board had argued that the book -- part of a 24-volume series on life in different countries -- portrayed life under dictator Fidel Castro as essentially overly positive. The ACLU brought the case on constitutional/book banning grounds, and the school district has spent a quarter-of-million dollars defending it.
While school board members applauded the ruling, the ACLU promised a certain appeal. Lawyers there are currently deciding whether to request an enbanc hearing before the 11th or go straight to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to ACLU spokesman Brendan Hensler.
"This is the first case where a book was banned for what it doesn't say," Hensler said. "People recognize that book banning is not the solution -- that we shouldn't take books away but add more."
The books, which were replaced on the shelves of school libraries after Gold's ruling, will stay on the shelves until the litigation plays out, he said.
Interesting fact: it's unclear if any of the controversial books are even on the shelves any more. Most were checked out or stolen by souvenir collectors or angry residents.

Are you surprised by the 11th Circuit's ruling authored by Judge Ed Carnes? Will the U.S. Supreme Court take a book banning case?

Vamos a Cuba

Remember the book controversy over "Vamos a Cuba"? A year ago Judge Gold ruled that the School Board violated the First Amendment in banning the book. The Eleventh Circuit heard argument. From the AP:

In the hearing on Wednesday, Senior Circuit Judge Donald Walter, outlining a hypothetical situation, asked ACLU attorney JoNel Newman whether it would be acceptable to remove a book about Adolph Hitler that failed to mention the Holocaust.
"The political reality in Cuba is not what the book is about," Newman said, arguing the book about Cuba focused on daily life on the island, not Castro. "The school board can't remove it because it wishes to inject a political message into it."
Overruling the decision of two academic advisory committees and the county school superintendent, board members voted last year to remove the book after a parent who spent time as political prisoner in Cuba complained. Critics of the book say it does not mention Cuba's alleged lack of civil liberties, the political indoctrination of public school children, food rationing and forced child labor.
"These books are rife with factual omissions, misrepresentations and inaccuracies," said Richard Ovelmen, the school board's attorney.
The move was contested in federal court, with the judge ruling last summer that the board's opposition was political, and the issue would best be addressed by expanding the collection instead of removing books espousing views with which the board did not agree.
Circuit Judge Ed Carnes noted that "there's a difference in enormity" between the Holocaust and actions by Castro's government, but that Walter's hypothetical addressed the "omission of facts."
The 2001 book by Alta Schreier contains images of smiling children wearing uniforms of Cuba's communist youth group and celebrating the country's 1959 revolution. In discussing the daily life of Cuban children, the book says they work, study and play the same way children in other countries do.
Walter and Carnes both took issue with that premise.
"That's simply not true," Carnes said.
Carnes also presented his own hypothetical, asking Newman if a book about North Korea could be pulled from shelves because it failed to mention problems in that communist government.
Newman said such political discussions should not be required for books for elementary students.
The court did not indicate when it would rule.