Homedefault.xml Other Groups and Organizations Freedom to Read Foundation FTRF in Action Time Line 1969-1979

1969

Foundation was created
The Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) was incorporated in November.

1970

Joan Bodger dismissal
The first major action by the FTRF was a grant to assist librarian Joan Bodger, fired from the Missouri State Library. Bodger lost her job for writing a letter to a local newspaper protesting the suppression of an underground newspaper. An ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom fact-finding report, approved by the Executive Board, vindicated Bodger and deplored the library’s actions.

Marshall E. Woodruff legal defense fund
A grant was awarded to support a lawsuit challenging Woodruff’s conviction for selling an allegedly obscene issue of the Washington Free Press. The Maryland Court of Special Appeals eventually overturned the conviction.

T. Ellis Hodgin dismissal
$500 was awarded to defray financial hardships after Hodgin lost his job as the city librarian of Martinsville, Virginia. Hodgin had come under fire for joining a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a religious education course taught in the city school system attended by his daughter.

1971

T. Ellis Hodgin legal defense
Continuing its involvement in the defense of Ellis Hodgin, a second $500 was awarded to assist in perfecting an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in a lawsuit Hodgin brought seeking reinstatement as city librarian. The Court declined to review the case.

Todd v. Rochester Community Schools
A grant was awarded to a school system in Rochester, Michigan, for its legal expenses in appealing a state trial court decision upholding the removal of Slaughterhouse-Five from school libraries and classrooms. The Court of Appeals of Michigan eventually ruled in favor of the school system, allowing the book to be returned. This was the Foundation’s first support of litigation to oppose the removal of library materials.

1972

Moore v. Younger
For the first time, the FTRF served as a party in a lawsuit. The lead plaintiff was Everett T. Moore, Assistant Librarian at UCLA and Vice-President of the Freedom to Read Foundation. The class action suit challenged California’s 1969 harmful matter law, asserting that it was unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, and placed librarians in criminal jeopardy for distributing matter judged “harmful to minors.” Ultimately, the defendant state attorney general acknowledged, in 1976, that librarians were exempt from the harmful matter law.

1973

“Pentagon Papers” fund
A grant was awarded for legal defense costs in the federal prosecution of Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony J. Russo, Jr., for their role in the publication of the “Pentagon Papers,” which disclosed the official secret history of American involvement in Vietnam. The charges against Ellsberg and Russo were eventually dismissed.

Kaplan v. California
The FTRF became involved in its first U.S. Supreme Court appeal by filing, through the American Library Association, a motion asking the Court to consider an amicus brief addressing constitutional questions posed by the new three-prong test for obscenity in Miller v. California. Denying the motion, the Court declined to consider the argument that First Amendment protections are not limited just to serious literature or political works.

New York v. Kirkpatrick
An amicus brief was filed in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting a challenge to a New York state statute that raised a legal presumption that those lending or selling “obscene” material—in this case Zap Comix by the artist Robert Crumb—did so with knowledge of its content and character. The Court declined to review the case.

1974

Jenkins v. Georgia
An amicus brief was filed in the U.S. Supreme Court urging the reversal of various convictions in Georgia resulting from showing the movie Carnal Knowledge in violation of the state obscenity statute. The Court found that the film was not obscene under the new test for obscenity in Miller v. California.

Hamling v. United States
An amicus brief was filed in the U.S. Supreme Court asking for a clarification of what “guilty intent” was required for a conviction under obscenity statutes. The Court held that convictions would stand regardless of whether or not the defendants believed the materials were obscene.

Moore v. Younger
In the federal court litigation begun in 1972, the Foundation and other plaintiffs were ordered to file a second lawsuit in California state court, so that the state system could first interpret for itself the California harmful matter law. The decision eventually issued by California’s Los Angeles County Superior Court became the basis for the final outcome in the matter, namely, the attorney general’s recognition that California librarians were exempt from the statute.

1975

Knopf v. Colby
An amicus brief was filed in the U.S. Supreme Court (in cooperation with the Association of American Publishers and the American Booksellers Association) urging the Court to review the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit requiring a redaction of certain portions of the published text of The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence. The Court declined to review the decision.

Smith v. United States
A grant was awarded to support an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit seeking to reverse a conviction under the Comstock Act. The appeal argued that applying the federal act essentially nullified Iowa-based community standards for obscenity that were embodied in the less restrictive Iowa obscenity statute.

1976

Smith v. United States
Continuing its involvement in this case, an amicus brief was filed in the U.S. Supreme Court to support an appeal of the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirming the federal Comstock Act conviction. The Supreme Court held that state law cannot define community standards for a prosecution under federal obscenity law. Community standards are questions of fact to be resolved by the federal jury.

Harry Reems legal defense
Best known as the male lead in Deep Throat, Reems was charged with conspiracy to transport obscenity across state lines. He and others were convicted, but the indictments were eventually dropped after a retrial was granted. The FTRF contributed to support the actor’s defense.

1977

Right to Read Defense Committee of Chelsea v. School Committee of Chelsea
A grant was awarded to aid Chelsea (MA) High School librarian Sonja Coleman and other plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit to resist efforts of the Chelsea School Board to remove from the high school library an anthology of student literary works entitled Male and Female Under 18. The controversy surrounded a poem, “The City to a Young Girl,” written by a 15 year old New York City student who used sexual slang words and complained about sex starved construction workers who saw the author only as “a good piece of meat.”

Niemi v. National Broadcasting Co.
Amicus briefs were filed in the California Court of Appeal and in the California Supreme Court to support the dismissal of a civil action by Niemi seeking to hold NBC responsible for the criminal conduct of third parties allegedly inspired by the violence depicted in a television program. After the Court of Appeal reversed the lower court’s dismissal of the action and the California Supreme Court refused to review that decision, an application for review was filed in the U.S. Supreme Court. The FTRF filed an amicus brief in support of the application, but the Court declined to review the case.

Flynt v. Ohio
An amicus brief was filed in the Ohio Court of Appeal (in cooperation with the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the International Periodical Distributors Association, the Council for Periodical Distributors Associations, and the American Booksellers Association) to protest the use of Ohio’s “organized crime” law to chill freedom of expression. Flynt’s conviction was eventually reversed.

1978

Right to Read Defense Committee of Chelsea v. School Committee of Chelsea
Continuing its involvement in this case, begun in 1977, an additional grant was awarded to assist in an action to enjoin removal of the book Male and Female Under 18 from the shelves of the Chelsea (MA) High School library. Ultimately, the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts returned the book to the shelves.

Pico v. Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26
An amicus brief was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York (in cooperation with the New York Library Association, the Long Island School Media Association, the Nassau County Library Association, the Suffolk County Library Association, and the Suffolk School Library Media Association) supporting a student’s `challenge of the constitutionality of a school board’s removal of Soul on Ice, A Hero Ain’t Nothing But a Sandwich, The Fixer, Go Ask Alice, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers, Black Boy, Laughing Boy, and The Naked Ape from the district’s high school and junior high school libraries.

Niemi v. National Broadcasting Co.
Continuing its involvement in this case, begun in 1977, an amicus brief was filed in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting an application to stay the commencement of a trial in this action involving broadcaster liability. The Court denied the stay. During the trial, the plaintiff limited its claim against NBC to one of negligence, and the court dismissed lawsuit for a second time. On appeal, the California Court of Appeal affirmed the dismissal.

Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation
An amicus brief was filed in the U.S. Supreme Court (in cooperation with the American Civil Liberties Union, the Association of American Publishers, the Citizens Communication Center, P.E.N. American Center, and Poets and Writers, Inc.) supporting a challenge to an FCC order as to “possible” sanctions against a radio station for its afternoon broadcast of comic George Carlin’s “seven dirty words” monologue. The Court upheld the FCC order.

St. Martin’s Press v. Carey
An amicus brief was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in cooperation with the Association of American Publishers and the American Booksellers Association) in a case seeking to enjoin prosecutors from using a New York state penal statute—which forbid promoting a sexual performance by a child—to restrict the distribution of Show Me! and other sex education publications. The appellate court ruled that the lawsuit did not present a “case or controversy.” The court dismissed the complaint on the ground that the publications were never intended to be prosecuted and did not come within the language of the statute.

Lamb v. Independent School District 719
The Minnesota Civil Liberties Union was awarded a grant to provide expert witnesses in a federal lawsuit challenging the school board’s removal of Ms. magazine from the Prior Lake (MN) High School library. Ultimately, the U.S. District Court dismissed the case when it found there was no plaintiff in the class action lawsuit representative of the class of affected students.

American Booksellers Ass’n v. Leech
A grant was awarded to the Tennessee Library Association allowing it to participate in a constitutional challenge of a newly enacted sweeping state criminal obscenity statute.

Spokane Arcades v. Ray
The Washington Library Association was awarded a grant for legal expenses in preparing an amicus brief filed in a federal lawsuit seeking to invalidate a “moral nuisance” law passed by Washington state voters in a ballot referendum.

1979

Bicknell v. Vergennes Union High School Board of Directors
A grant was awarded to the Vermont Civil Liberties Union to assist Elizabeth Phillips, the Vergennes (VT) Union High School librarian, as well as students and other plaintiffs, in a federal lawsuit challenging the school board’s removal of The Wanderer and Dog Day Afternoon from the school library. Bicknell was eventually decided with the Pico case (see 1978) by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which distinguished the two cases on the basis of the motives attributable to the respective school boards. The dismissal of the Bicknell lawsuit was upheld because the board based its removals on objections to the “vulgar and indecent language” contained in the books, rather than their ideas.

Pratt v. Independent School District 831
A grant to the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union aided the plaintiff students in a lawsuit challenging a school board order forbidding classroom use of the film The Lottery in Forest Lake, Minnesota. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit eventually upheld the challenge, finding the school board had violated the First Amendment because it banned the film on the basis of its “ideological content.”

Lo-Ji Sales v. New York
An amicus brief was filed in the U.S. Supreme Court (in cooperation with the American Booksellers Association, the Association of American Publishers, the Council for Periodical Distributors Associations, the International Periodical Distributors Association, and the National Association of College Stores) defending the principle that allegedly obscene materials may not be seized unless a “neutral and detached magistrate” has “focused searchingly” on each item “taken as a whole.” The Court upheld that principle in unanimously overturning the obscenity conviction.

Penthouse v. McAuliffe
An amicus brief was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in cooperation with the American Booksellers Association, the Association of American Publishers, the Council for Periodical Distributors Associations, the International Periodical Distributors Association, and the National Association of College Stores) resisting the misapplication of the “taken as a whole” requirement contained in the Miller v. California test for obscenity. The Fulton County (GA) Solicitor General Hinson McAuliffe sought to apply the requirement to limited or separate portions of certain magazines and anthologies.

Oaks v. City of Fairhope
Claire Oaks, dismissed from her position as librarian of the Fairhope (AL) Public Library, was awarded a grant to help defray her legal expenses in a lawsuit charging that her First Amendment rights had been violated. Oaks eventually reached an out-of-court settlement and was restored to her job.

United States v. The Progressive, Inc.
An amicus brief was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (in cooperation with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press) supporting the appeal by The Progressive magazine of a U.S. District Court order permanently barring the publication of an article on how to build a hydrogen bomb. Ultimately, the Court of Appeals did not rule on any of the issues. After the substance of the article appeared in another periodical, the government dropped its case against The Progressive.

American Booksellers Ass’n v. Leech
Continuing an involvement begun in 1978, an additional grant was awarded to the Tennessee Library Association to continue its challenge to a Tennessee obscenity statute. The Tennessee Supreme Court eventually determined that the statute was unconstitutional.

Zykan v. Warsaw Community School Corp.
The Indiana Civil Liberties Union was awarded a grant to represent a Warsaw (IN) High School student challenging the school board’s ban on classroom use of a textbook, entitled Values Clarification, and other books, such as Growing Up Female in America, The Stepford Wives, Go Ask Alice, and The Bell Jar. The student’s lawsuit also challenged the cancellation of ten elective English courses in subjects such as black literature, science fiction, and Gothic literature, and the firing of two teachers who had taught controversial works.

Vance v. Universal Amusement Co.
An amicus brief was filed in the U.S. Supreme Court (in cooperation with the American Booksellers Association, the Association of American Publishers, and other First Amendment groups) arguing that a Texas “public nuisance” law allowing a court to enjoin any future exhibition of obscene movies if it was shown that the theater had exhibited an obscene movie in the past amounted to “prior restraint” violating the First Amendment. The Court ultimately invalidated the statute on those grounds.

United States v. Giese
An amicus brief was filed in the U.S. Supreme Court (in cooperation with P.E.N. American Center and the American Booksellers Association) arguing that convicting a bookstore proprietor for criminal conspiracy had a devastating effect on the freedom to read and discuss books. The Court declined to review the case.

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