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In the fall of 1975, a New York school board received a complaint from a community group, Parents of New York United. The complaint asserted that school policies on library books were too “permissive.”
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In response, the school district removed the books in February of 1976.
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Senior Steven Pico joined with four other students to challenge the school board’s decision to remove the books. Pico claimed that the books were removed because “passages in the books offended [the group’s] social, political, and moral tastes and not because the books, taken as a whole, were lacking in educational value.”
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A federal district court granted the board’s motion for summary judgment on the basis that its motivation stemmed from a “conservative educational philosophy
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Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and remanded, pointing out that there was an issue of fact regarding the board’s motives.
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March 2, 1982The Supreme Court ruled in the students’ favor on First Amendment grounds, holding that the right to read is implied by the First Amendment. The government—in this case, a public school—cannot restrict speech because it does not agree with the content of that speec
