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VietnameseGriffin: ‘There is no First Amendment right to compel public-school libraries to stock their shelves with books containing graphic descriptions of sex acts that elementary students can access without their parents’ knowledge or consent’
LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement after leading a 21-state coalition that filed an amicus brief supporting Florida’s HB 1069, a law that ensures public-school libraries are not providing sexually graphic materials to their young students:
“There is no First Amendment right to compel public-school libraries to stock their shelves with books containing graphic descriptions of sex acts that elementary students can access without their parents’ knowledge or consent.
“Yet a federal district court has concluded that Florida cannot prohibit materials with descriptions of sexual conduct from lining the shelves of its public-school libraries, which is why I have filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit supporting Florida’s defense of its law. The district court ruled that Florida’s law violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment, but the Free Speech Clause does not extend to government speech, which is what is at issue here.
“The Eleventh Circuit should reverse the lower court and hold that curation decisions for public-school libraries are government speech. Such decisions are not regulated by the First Amendment, which does not dictate what books the State must provide in its public libraries. Doing so helps ensure that important decisions regarding the education of children and the contents of public-school libraries remain with the constitutionally appropriate decisionmakers: democratically accountable state and local officials.”
Joining Attorney General Griffin in filing the brief were the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
To read the brief, click here.
To download a PDF of this release, click here.
About Attorney General Tim Griffin
Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.
Griffin is currently an officer in the Arkansas Army National Guard and holds the rank of colonel. Griffin served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 28 years. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.
His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana; the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.
Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.
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