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Judge Strikes Down Indiana Bookstore Registration Law
On July 1, a federal judge in
Indianapolis struck down an Indiana law requiring bookstores and other
retail establishments that sell even a single “sexually explicit” book,
magazine, video or recording to register with the state as an "adult"
business and pay a $250
license fee. “Clearly, a vast array of merchants and materials is
implicated by the reach of this statute as written,” Judge Sarah Evans
Barker declared in a written opinion. “A romance novel sold at a
drugstore, a magazine offering sex advice in a grocery store checkout
line, an R-rated DVD sold by a video rental shop, a collection of old
Playboy magazines sold by a widow at a garage sale – all incidents of
unquestionably lawful, non-obscene, non-pornographic material being sold
to adults – would appear to necessitate registration under the statute.”
The Indiana Attorney General has announced that he will not appeal the
decision.
Barker agreed with ABFFE, Big Hat Books of Indianapolis, Boxcar Books
and Community Center of Bloomington and the other plaintiffs that the
law would have a chilling effect on the sale of constitutionally
protected works. To avoid being labeled an “adult” store, retailers
would have been forced to suppress the sale of almost all works with
sexual content. “There can be no doubt that compliance with such a vague
mandate will be unduly burdensome, will have a chilling effect on
expression, and will fail to provide ordinary people with a reasonable
degree of notice as to the law’s requirements; the Constitution demands
no less,” Barker said. Click
here to read bookseller reactions to
the decision in Bookselling This Week. Click
here to read Barker’s opinion.
Judge Sets October 3 Hearing in Oregon Case
A federal judge in Portland has set October 3 as the date for a final
hearing in the challenge that ABFFE, six booksellers, and a coalition of
groups have filed in an effort to overturn portions of Oregon's "harmful
to minors" law. U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Mosman
scheduled the hearing on the motion for a permanent injunction on June
30 after denying a request for a preliminary injunction.
Oregon House Bill 2843 makes it a misdemeanor punishable by up to one
year in jail to allow a minor under 13 to view or purchase a “sexually
explicit” work. Booksellers have challenged the law because it does not
include a requirement that a book or magazine be judged as a whole in
determining whether it is illegal. The U.S. Supreme Court requires such
a test to protect works that contain only a few sexually explicit images
or passages. Booksellers also object to the lack of an exemption for
material that has serious literary artistic, political or scientific
value for minors—another Supreme Court requirement. To read more about
the case, click
here.
FREADOM
T-Shirts, Bookmarks, and More - Order Now for Banned Books Week!
Banned Books Week 2008 kicks off
on Sept. 27. To help booksellers prepare, ABFFE is launching its annual
sale of Banned Books Week products, including a
new
FREADOM bookmark that is priced at only $5 for 100. The bookmark
incorporates Roger Roth’s very popular image of the Statue of Liberty
reading a book. There are also deep discounts on the T-shirts, buttons
and stickers that incorporate ABFFE’s
FREADOM logo. The T-shirts are available in charcoal and forest
green, as well as the
traditional blue and black. Booksellers can order T-shirts customized
with their store logo for just $1 extra per shirt. Customized orders
must be received by September 1 to guarantee delivery in time for
Banned Books Week.
To download an order form, click here.
For
the first time this year, ABFFE will also offer Banned Books Week
bracelets that feature cover art from frequently challenged books.
Created by artist Carolyn Forsman, the bracelets are available in adult
and young adult versions.
Click here to view the bracelets.
ABFFE makes it easy for booksellers to participate in Banned Books Week
by providing an online handbook on its Web site,
http://www.abffe.com/banned2007.htm. The handbook
describes a variety of activities, including the creation of simple
displays and ideas for organizing easy events like readings from banned
books.
Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 to draw attention to the growing
number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. It
is sponsored by ABFFE, ALA, the Association of American Publishers, the
American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National
Association of College Stores. For further information about Banned
Books Week, contact Rebecca Zeidel, (212) 587-4025 ext. 13;
rebecca@abffe.com.
ABFFE Welcomes Michael Tucker to Board of Directors
In June,
the ABFFE board of directors welcomed Michael Tucker of Books, Inc. in
California as its new member. Tucker is the new vice president of the
American Booksellers Association (ABA) and therefore becomes vice
president of ABFFE as well. The ABA adopted this policy at the time of
the creation of ABFFE to ensure that the ABA's leadership is
knowledgeable and informed about ABFFE's work.
Tucker replaces Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe,
Arizona, the new ABA president.
Tucker is president/CEO and co-owner of Books, Inc. In addition to
serving on the ABA board, he is also a member of the Northern California
Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA), the Southern California
Independent Booksellers Association (SCIBA), and the San Francisco
Locally Owned Merchants Alliance (SFLOMA).
Supreme Court
Upholds Child Pornography Law
On May 19, the Supreme
Court upheld a child pornography law that makes it a crime to “pander”
material as child pornography even if it is not child pornography.
ABFFE had joined other members of Media Coalition in filing an amicus
brief in the case, U.S. v. Williams. In the view of the 11th
Circuit Court of Appeals, the law creates the possibility that a
bookseller could be convicted of child pornography for offering to sell
material that is constitutionally protected or does not depict children
at all.
In a 7-2 ruling, the
Supreme Court rejected the reasoning of the 11th Circuit and
the amicus brief filed by ABFFE and others. Writing for the majority,
Justice Scalia declared that it is clear Congress meant the law to apply
only to those who intentionally market material as child pornography. “We
are disappointed that the Supreme Court did not recognize the problem of
vagueness identified by the 11th Circuit," ABFFE President Chris Finan
said. "However, we take some comfort in the fact that the Court
has declared that the law applies only to those who intentionally market
material as child pornography. It effectively narrowed the
statute, making it less likely that a bookseller could ever be charged."
The
ABFFE Book of the Month for June is Claim of Privilege: A
Mysterious Plane Crash, a Landmark Supreme Court Case, and the Rise
of State Secrets by Barry Siegel (HarperCollins),
9780060777029. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Barry
Siegel uncovers the mystery behind a 1948 plane crash and the
Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in U.S. v. Reynolds, which
formally recognized the State Secrets Privilege. The case involved
three civilian engineers who joined an Air Force crew who boarded a
B-29 plane to test secret navigational equipment they were
developing for the government. The plane crashed during testing in
1948, and all three engineers died. In responding to the widows’
suit for damages, the government refused to release its accident
reports and witness statements, falsely claiming they contained
classified information. In U.S. v. Reynolds, the Supreme
Court upheld this claim and thereby set a legal precedent
enabling federal agencies to refuse to turn over sensitive documents
that they say might endanger national security. Siegel reveals the
dangerous consequences of government secrecy and how it threatens
our civil liberties.
Click here to read an interview with the author.
To read about recent ABFFE Book of the Month selections,
click
here.
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Show Your Support for Freadom!
ABFFE's
popular, newly-redesigned “freadom” t-shirts, buttons, bookmarks, and bumper
stickers are available during Banned Books Week and all year round. To
order online, visit the ABFFE store.
For further information,
contact Rebecca Zeidel, (212) 587-4025, ext. 13;
rebecca@abffe.com.
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