An opinion was handed down last week in a U.S. 9th Circuit Court
of Appeals case where it was charged that requiring students to
read Mark Twain's _Huckleberry Finn_ and "A Rose for Emily" by
William Faulkner "created, exacerbated and contributed to a
hostile work environment" at a Tempe, Arizona, high school, and
that failure to remove the books from the curriculum amounted to
discrimination against African American students.  From the
court's opinion:

"The complaint, brought on Doe's behalf by her mother, Kathy
Monteiro, alleged that each of these literary works 'contains
repeated use of the profane, insulting and racially derogatory term
"nigger."' It also alleged that neither work is a necessary
component of a freshman English class and that none of the
assignments in the curriculum refers to Caucasians in a derogatory
manner."

The court ruled against banning books based on their content but
ruled that school districts can be held financially liable if they do
not address racially hostile environments at schools. Its opinion is
online at:

Monteiro vs. Tempe Union High School District, 97-15511
http://laws.findlaw.com/9th/9715511.html

Most efforts to remove books from school curriculums are directed
towards local school boards (like the successful challenges in
Maryland last winter to Maya Angelou's _I Know Why the Caged
Bird Sings_ and Toni Morrison's _Song of Solomon_ as "anti-
white").  The people in Arizona used civil rights legislation to make
it a legal case.  Does anyone know of other challenges to books
that have actually gone to the courts in this way?


Jim Zwick
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http://home.ican.net/~fjzwick/
http://marktwain.miningco.com/