ABFFE Seeks Booksellers for Alaska and Massachusetts Censorship Cases

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) is seeking bookstores to become plaintiffs in challenges to new censorship laws in Alaska and Massachusetts. The laws ban the electronic communications of material that is "harmful to minors," including the display of "harmful" book jackets and excerpts on bookstore websites.

ABFFE has helped overturn eight similar laws -- two federal and six state statutes. "We were beginning to think that we had seen the end of these patently unconstitutional laws, but we were wrong," said ABFFE President Chris Finan.

The Massachusetts law was passed in response to a controversial court decision that resulted in the release of a man who had sent sexual material to a minor. When the court ruled that his offense was not covered by current law, the legislature rushed to fix it.

The Alaska measure, which will probably receive the governor's signature in the next couple of days, is part of a bill that bans the sale to minors of all material that is "harmful," including books and magazines. ABFFE and Media Coalition, its legislative watchdog, were successful in significantly improving the bill before it was approved by the legislature, but proposed changes that would have made the Internet provision constitutional were rejected.

ABFFE noted that it has no objection to a law that prohibits a person from sending inappropriate sexual material directly to a specific minor. However, both the Alaska and Massachusetts laws are much broader, and make it illegal to post material with serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value on the Internet. "While 'harmful' material may be inappropriate for younger minors, adults and older minors have a First Amendment right to see, read and hear it," said ABFFE.

ABFFE will participate in lawsuits filed by Media Coalition, and it is expected that national associations representing publishers, librarians, and others will join the cases.

Local plaintiffs, including booksellers, are also needed. ABFFE noted that there is no cost to participate, and cases are usually resolved without a trial. The plaintiff's only definite obligation woulde be signing an affidavit that will be drafted by Media Coalition attorneys.

Booksellers who are interested in participating are asked to contact Finan at [email protected] or (212) 587-4025, ext. 15.