Attorney: ACLU Complaint Shouldn't Trump Florida School Board's Rights
by Jim Brown
October 31, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) is urging a federal appeals court to overturn a decision that forced a South Florida school board to keep a controversial book about Cuba on school library shelves.The Miami-Dade County School Board had removed the book A Visit to Cuba from school library shelves after hearing from parents who complained that the book painted a rosy -- and false -- picture of life on the communist island. However, the ACLU filed a lawsuit, alleging that removal of the book violated the free speech rights of students. A federal district court agreed and reinstated the book.
Now a pro-family legal group, the American Center for Law and Justice, has filed a friend of the court brief, asking the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the prior ruling. ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow feels that court decision allowed the ACLU to nullify the function of local school officials, letting the civil liberties group "come in and acts as if they're the school board, and they try to undo -- which they've successfully done so far -- a duly enacted decision of the school board."
In fact, Sekulow says what concerns him most about this case "was that the ACLU, through the court process, tried to override the duly elected school board of Miami-Dade County." The idea that this liberal organization "can override the rights of the parents and of the school board here should not be left to stand," he asserts, "and that's why we've filed briefs at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals."
The ACLJ's chief counsel says the American Civil Liberties Union's complaint should never have trumped the rights of Miami-Dade County residents. "A large portion of that community are people that know firsthand what life was in Communist Cuba because they fled that country," he points out.
Sekulow believes the school board's decision to remove A Visit to Cuba from school library shelves was the right one. And such a move is particularly apt, he suggests, "when you've got the parents in the community saying that this book is not accurate -- that the series does not depict what life is really like in Cuba -- and then they go to their duly elected representatives and they make a determination that the books are not accurate and move to have that series removed, replaced by another series."
Under the circumstances, Sekulow believes the prospects are good for a favorable ruling in this case. Noting that the 11th Circuit is by nature a conservative court, he says he thinks it likely that the federal district court's ruling will be overturned.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
