The Elizabeth School District’s actions violated federal and state constitutional free speech protections.
DENVER — The ACLU of Colorado, representing C.C., a student at Elizabeth High School, E.S., a student in the Elizabeth School District (ESD), the NAACP – Colorado – Montana – Wyoming State Area Conference (RMNAACP), and the Authors Guild, sued the Elizabeth School District for removing books from school libraries that contravened the school board members’ partisan and political values. These removals violated federal and state constitutional free speech protections.
“The board’s action is a violation of the students’ constitutional right to receive information, as well as the authors’ right to share their views without undue viewpoint-based discrimination” said Tim Macdonald, ACLU of Colorado Legal Director. “The federal and state constitutions prohibit this kind of politically motivated censorship. Far from advancing the purported mission of their office, the board's actions are nothing more than an attempt to impose their distorted view of a partisan, political orthodoxy.”
In the summer of 2024, the ESD Board of Education appointed a committee to create a list of books that they believed contained “sensitive topics” such as “racism/discrimination,” “mental illness,” and “sexual content.” In the process of identifying so-called “sensitive” books, the committee identified 19 books that the school board believed were “highly sensitive” and should be “suspended” from school libraries. This disproportionately targeted books by and about Black and Brown people and LGBTQ+ people, including The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas; Beloved and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison; and #Pride: Championing LGBTQ Rights by Rebecca Felix. In September 2024, the board announced that based on the content of the books, the “suspended” books would be permanently removed from ESD libraries. The board is continuing to determine whether additional books should be removed from school libraries. The board has also enacted a policy that purports to prohibit students from sharing books with one another.
The removal of these books violates both the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Free Speech Clause of the Colorado Constitution. It deprives students of access to a diversity of information and viewpoints. It also denies authors their right to share their books with students free from viewpoint-based censorship.
“My love of reading began with some of the authors that ESD has put on the banned and sensitive lists. They helped show me that I belonged,” said Portia Prescott, President of the NAACP State Area Conference. “Children should not be robbed of the ability to read books in their school library that make them feel seen and heard.”
In addition to Macdonald, the legal team includes ACLU of Colorado Staff Attorneys Laura Moraff and Sara Neel, and ACLU Cooperating Attorneys Craig May, Tom Dec, and Celyn Whitt with Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell LLP.
