The Escambia County School Board in Florida is learning the hard way that bigotry – and stupidity – is very costly.
The Escambia County School Board has paid a law firm at least $107,000 to defend its removal of “And Tango Makes Three” after a federal lawsuit was filed by its authors, according to documentation obtained by the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida through public records requests.
And that doesn’t take into account the flurry of legal activity over the summer; the last expensed services in the documentation were from June.
Regardless, that amount makes up only a minority of the legal fees the board has paid out for recent book banning-related lawsuits.
It’s paid at least $255,000 in legal fees to defend itself against another federal lawsuit. This one was filed by national free speech group PEN America, book publisher Penguin Random House, book authors and the parents of students who were denied access to school library books.
And if that didn’t burn your toast, wait until you get a load of their rationale:
In both lawsuits, those suing accuse school officials of violating the First Amendment with their book bans.
And, in both, those officials say they have the right to remove or restrict any book for any reason, saying such decisions are protected government speech, a legal doctrine that says when the government is communicating its own messages or promoting particular policies, it’s not required to provide equal opportunities for opposing viewpoints.
Has “because we told you so” ever worked with anyone? Seriously, the is pure Christian Nationalism in action. The school board and Old Governor Pudding Fingers are forcing their skewed values on people, denying their constitutional rights and then making the people pay to defend the fascism that they are challenging.
And this is just a taste of what kind of bullshit the Republicans want to do if they win in November.
