In refusing to hear a Miami book banning case, the Supreme Court left in place a ruling by a federal appeals court that the Miami school board could remove a book from the school libraries because it presented too rosy a picture of life in Cuba under the communists. -DB
Miami Herald
November 16, 2009
By Kathleen McGrory
The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear a case challenging a Miami-Dade School Board decision to remove a controversial children’s book about Cuba from public schools, the court announced Monday.
In February, a federal appeals court ruled the board did not breach the First Amendment when it pulled Vamos a Cuba from school libraries in 2006.
The majority opinion said the book, part of a series of books on two dozen nations, presented an “inaccurate” view of life under former Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
But the high court on Monday declined to hear the case.
“Frankly, this clears the path for the Miami-Dade School Board to remove the entire series of books against which there was not a single protest,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida.
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