VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – A court case involving two books and multiple bookstores will be heard next week in a Virginia Beach Courtroom.
It started with the books entitled “Gender Queer” and “A Court of Mist and Fury.”
Virginia legislator and attorney Tim Anderson filed a lawsuit on behalf of his client, Tommy Altman, a Virginia Beach parent.
The two books depict graphic sexual content. Anderson is asking the court to require Barnes and Noble as well as a handful of other stores to require parental consent before selling the books to minors.
“It’s really about restoring parental rights and controlling the things that their children can have access to,” stated Anderson. “Just like we do with R-rated movies, just like we do with violent video games, just like we do with cigarettes and alcohol.”
Anderson says he’s well aware the case has First Amendment implications.
Matthew Callahan, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia sent the following statement:
“The law being considered in these cases has a number of constitutional problems. The First Amendment requires any law that restricts speech to have a number of procedural safeguards to ensure that only illegal speech is being restricted. Those safeguards are missing from this law. Among other problems, an order that stopped these books from being circulated would affect people who are not a part of the court case (and were not even necessarily aware that the court case is happening), which is unconstitutional. We hope that the court will not only dismiss these cases but hold that the law as it is written is unconstitutional.”
It’s scheduled to be in court again Tuesday, August 30.
