Free Speech Controversy - Essay Example

The mother then reported the content of that book to a local news station known as KOAT, which was said to have been biased on how it reported the case. As the case remains undecided, the book may have been removed from the shelves of the library because they found out that it violated school district policies. She brought the book to the attention of other authority bodies such as the Public School officials from Rio Rancho who also agreed on the inappropriateness of the content. On one side of the debate are Catreena Lopez and the Public School officials who are against the book remaining at easy reach of under age students who should not be exposed to pornographic content.

On the other side is CBLF that is fighting the challenge and ensuring that the school district of Rio Rancho abides by its pre-established challenge policy (Williams). This policy concerns requesting of reconsideration on library materials as well as the formation of a review committee that should decide the appropriateness of the book and whether it should remain in the library. In this case, the remedy being sought is amendment of the constitution. This is because the challengers would lose the case if the First Amendment stands behind the author of the work in question.

The first amendment eliminates governmental constraints to speech implying that it is protecting the author of the book in question (First Amendment).This seems to imply that the only way the book can be kept completely out of the library shelves is to amend the constitution and include clauses that would forbid the content in that book. Therefore, the challengers are seeking the amendment of the constitution to accommodate their claims of what inappropriateness is and may even prompt the removal of other materials if the amendment goes through.

This is not the first time that such a case has been brought up but CNN also highlighted a