Pico v. Board of Ed., Island Trees Union Free School Dist. No. 26
| Citation | 638 F.2d 404 |
| Decision Date | 02 October 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. 619,D,619 |
| Parties | 7 Media L. Rep. 1360 Steven A. PICO, by his next friend, Frances Pico, Jacqueline Gold, by her next friend, Rona Gold, Russell Rieger, by his next friend, Samuel Rieger, Glenn Yarris, by his next friend, Richard Yarris, and Paul Sochinski, by his next friend, Henry Sochinski, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION, ISLAND TREES UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 26, Richard Ahrens, Frank Martin, Christina Fasulo, Patrick Hughes, Richard Melchers, Richard Michaels, and Louis Nessim, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 79-7690. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit) |
Alan H. Levine, Clark, Wulf, Levine & Peratis, New York City, Alan Azzara, Nassau County Chapter New York Civil Liberties Union, Mineola, N. Y., Arthur Eisenberg, Richard Emery, New York Civil Liberties Union, New York City, and Steven Hyman, Hyman & Miner, New York City, for plaintiffs-appellants.
George W. Lipp, Jr., Lipp & Rubin, Babylon, N. Y., for defendants-appellees.
Cahill, Gordon & Reindel, New York City (Floyd Abrams and Roy L. Regozin, New York City, of counsel), for National Council of Teachers of English, New York State English Council, Nat. Council for the Social Studies, and Speech Communication Ass'n as amici curiae.
Reuben & Proctor, Chicago, Ill. (William D. North, Chicago, Ill., of counsel), for American Library Ass'n and the New York Library Ass'n as amici curiae.
Bredhoff, Gottesman, Cohen & Weinberg, Washington, D. C. (Robert M. Weinberg, Gary L. Sasso and Michael H. Gottesman, Washington, D. C., of counsel), and David Rubin, Washington, D. C., for Nat. Ed. Ass'n as amicus curiae.
Irwin Karp, New York City, for The Authors League of America, Inc. as amicus curiae.
James R. Sandner, New York City (Elizabeth A. Truly, Jeffrey S. Karp, New York City, of counsel), for New York State United Teachers as amicus curiae.
Henry R. Kaufman, New York City (Ira M. Millstein, R. Bruce Rich, Amy L. Katz and Weil, Gotshal & Manges, New York City, of counsel), for Association of American Publishers, Inc., P.E.N. American Center, Writers Guild of America, East, Inc. and Writers in the Public Interest as amici curiae.
Nathan Z. Dershowitz and Edward Labaton, New York City (Victoria Eiger and Maureen Schild, New York City, of counsel), for American Jewish Congress, American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith, American Orthopsychiatric Ass'n, Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island, Long Island Council of Churches, National Council of Jewish Women and the Unitarian Universalist Ass'n as amici curiae.
Ivan B. Gluckman, Reston, Va., for National Ass'n for Secondary School Principals as amicus curiae.
Before MANSFIELD and NEWMAN, Circuit Judges, and SIFTON, District Judge. *
At the conference, according to Ahrens, defendants obtained "lists of books considered objectionable by some persons together with excerpts from them containing the more objectionable material." These "lists" consisted, at least in part, of two sets of crudely typed and reproduced sheets, one relating to a Randolph High School in Randolph, New York, the other, to an inspection in March of 1975 by an organization called Concerned Citizens and Taxpayers for Decent School Books of Baton Rouge, Louisiana of the card catalogue and shelves of the Tara High School library in an unidentified town in that State. The lists included titles, authors and quotations, with page references. Interspersed with the quotations, themselves presented with editorial underlining, were comments of which the following are a sample:
The excerpts themselves, in contrast to the more politically oriented comments quoted above, are devoted principally to quotations of vulgar and indecent language referring to sexual and other bodily functions and crude descriptions of sexual behavior, although the manner of excerpting, including the use of underlining, elisions, apparent errors, and interspersed editorial comment leaves no great sense of confidence in the literal accuracy of the quotations. Several books appear on the list without any excerpts at all, but simply with a critical appraisal, e. g., A Reader for Writers. Another is listed without comment next to what purports to be quotations from three of the book's pages. 4
Although acquired in September, nothing was done by defendants with these lists 5 until November 7, 1975, when defendants Martin and Ahrens attended "Winter School Night" at the District's senior high school. According to Ahrens and Martin, they asked a school custodian to let them into the school library and, by comparing Martin's lists of objectionable books with the library card index files, determined that nine "objectionable" texts were in the school library. The school's principal apparently interrupted their work. According to Ahrens, the two men "told him briefly what we were doing."
we asked that principal to check it (he did so and found two more books that were on Mr. Martin's list)."As a result of this informal meeting, the Board directed the principals of the schools to remove the books from the library shelves forthwith.
Three days later the Superintendent of the School District, 7 Richard Morrow, sent a memorandum to the Board which had as its subject, "List of Books to be Banned." The memorandum stated, inter alia:
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Nat'l Rifle Ass'n of Am. v. Cuomo, 1:18-CV-0566
...Martinez v. Sanders , 307 F. App'x 467, 468 n.2 (2d Cir. 2008) (citing Pico v. Bd. of Educ., Island Trees Union Free Sch. Dist. No. 26 , 638 F.2d 404 (2d Cir. 1980), aff'd , 457 U.S. 853, 102 S.Ct. 2799, 73 L.Ed.2d 435 (1982) ), and are referred to as Plaintiff's First Amendment Claims.14 F......
-
Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No 26 v. Pico
... 457 U.S. 853 . 102 S.Ct. 2799 . 73 L.Ed.2d 435 . BOARD OF EDUCATION, ISLAND TREES UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 26 et al., Petitioners, ...Des Moines School Dist. , 393 U.S. 503, 506, 89 S.Ct. 733, 736, 21 L.Ed.2d 731, and such rights may be directly and ......
-
Matter of Townview Nursing Home, Bankruptcy No. 75 B 1578 (JL).
...699, 706 (1st Cir.1981), quoting Donnelly v. Guion, 467 F.2d 290, 293 (2d Cir.1972). Accord Pico v. Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School, 638 F.2d 404, 431, n. 9 (2d Cir.1980) ("the party opposing the motion must set forth `concrete particulars' . . . It is not sufficient mere......
-
Muir v. Alabama Educational Television Com'n, KUHT-TV
...reasons why a book, once acquired, should be removed from a library not filled to capacity." Pico v. Board of Education, 638 F.2d 404, 436 (2d Cir. 1980) (Newman, J., concurring), aff'd, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 2799, 73 L.Ed.2d 435 (1982). In comparison, television stations frequently do n......
-
BATTLEGROUNDS FOR BANNED BOOKS: THE FIRST AMENDMENT AND PUBLIC SCHOOL LIBRARIES.
...(83) Pico, 457 U.S. at 859 (plurality opinion) (citing Pico, 474 F. Supp. 387). (84) Id. at 860 (citing Pico v. Bd. of Educ, 638 F.2d 404 (2d Cir. (85) Id. at 855. (86) Id. at 875 (Blackmun, J., concurring in pan and concurring in the judgment). (87) Id. at 883 (While, J., concurring in the......
-
A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF BOOK BANNING AND VIDEO GAMES: SHOULD THERE BE A DIFFERENCE UNDER THE FIRST AMENDMENT?
...v. Bd. of Regents, 385 U.S. 589, 603 (1967)). (52) Pray, supra note 48, at 452. (53) Id. (54) Id. at 453 (quoting Pico v. Bd. of Educ. 638 F.2d 404, 418 n. 13 (2d Cir. (55) Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973). (56) See supra Part II. (57) Miller, 413 U.S. at 24 (citing Kois v. Wisconsi......