Harry Potter and the Cedarville Censors: Inside the Precedent-Setting Defeat of an Arkansas Book Ban

Harry Potter and the Cedarville Censors: Inside the Precedent-Setting Defeat of an Arkansas Book Ban

by Brian Meadors
Harry Potter and the Cedarville Censors: Inside the Precedent-Setting Defeat of an Arkansas Book Ban

Harry Potter and the Cedarville Censors: Inside the Precedent-Setting Defeat of an Arkansas Book Ban

by Brian Meadors

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Overview

In 2002, the Cedarville School Board in Crawford County, Arkansas, ordered the removal of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books from library shelves, holding that "witchcraft or sorcery [should not] be available for study." The Board picked some formidable adversaries. School librarian Estella Roberts, standing on policy, had the books reviewed--and unanimously approved--by a committee of teachers and administrators that included a child and a parent. Not satisfied with the Board's half-measure permitting access to the books with parental approval, 4th-grader Dakota Counts and her father Bill Counts sued the school district in Federal court, drawing on the precedent Pico v. Island Trees to reaffirm that Constitutional rights apply to school libraries. Written by the lawyer who prosecuted the case, this book details the origins of the book ban and the civil procedures and legal arguments that restored the First Amendment in Cedarville.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781476674971
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date: 02/28/2019
Pages: 217
Product dimensions: 5.80(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Brian Meadors is a former U.S. Navy nuclear submarine officer. After his naval service, he attended Georgetown University Law Center, graduating cum laude. He practiced in Washington, DC, for a few years before moving to Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he was a trial lawyer for ten years. He is currently in-house counsel for a Fortune 500 corporation and lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Preface 1
Introduction 3
 1. An Inspirational Wednesday 5
 2. A Brief History of Harry Potter 13
 3. Legal Backstory: Gobitis & Barnette (Students Have
  Constitutional Rights) 17
 4. Estella Fights Back 21
 5. Legal Backstory: Tinker (Students Have a Right to Non-Disruptive Speech) 28
 6. School Boards 31
 7. Legal Backstory: Pico (Students’ Free Speech Rights
  Apply to School Libraries) 40
 8. Like Magic, a Client Appears 53
 9. Intolerant of Tolerance 61
10. Adversaries and Allies 77
11. Legal Backstory: Sund (Hiding a Library Book Is the Same as Censoring It) 91
12. Building the Case 96
13. “There are schools of magic” 106
14. Dakota Counts 119
15. The Expert 133
16. Legal Backstory: Bystrom (8th Circuit Adopts the Pico Plurality) 145
17. Summary Judgment 158
18. Carrot and Stick 164
19. The Fruit of the Litigation Tree 174
Appendix: Judge Hendren’s Opinion (Counts v. Cedarville School District, 295 F.Supp.2d 996 [2003]) 183
Chapter Notes 195
Bibliography 199
Index 205
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