A Florida school board that's been sued for book banning has deposed some of its own students.
Those students, who were some of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, included a 7-year-old who wanted access to a picture book.
Yet, those same Escambia County School Board members are trying to avoid being deposed themselves.
They've appealed a federal judge's ruling allowing the board members to be deposed. On Wednesday, their attorneys argued before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that their book removal and restriction decisions were covered by a legal principle called "legislative privilege."
"Because we believe that this is a core policy matter regarding educational suitability, we believe that the legislative privilege protects these decisions," said Jeffrey Grosholz, an attorney for the board.
ALSO READ: What comes after book bans? One school district questions traditional libraries
Appellate Judge Andrew Brasher remarked it was a "very difficult case."
A deposition is an interview conducted under oath with lawyers. And, Ori Lev, a plaintiff attorney, said the officials shouldn't be excluded.
"You would think that if what's good for the goose is good for the gander, that they would have the same courage a 7-year-old would," said Lev, special counsel for the advocacy group Protect Democracy. "That they'd have the courage to sit down and explain their decisions to remove these books from school libraries."
The plaintiffs include students and their parents, authors, free expression group PEN America and Penguin Random House, the world's largest book publisher. Lev called the current appellate battle a "sideshow."
"Our case challenges a series of decisions by the Escambia County School Board to remove hundreds of books from school libraries, disproportionately books by or about people of color or LGBTQ people, and we want to be able to ask the school board members why," Lev said.
Lev argued the actions aren't covered by legislative privilege, saying the board was applying existing policy to individual books, not performing a legislative function.
"A lot of the cases in this area come from zoning and building permits," he said. " The rule there is if you adopt a zoning ordinance or change a zoning ordinance, that's legislative… But if you deny a building permit, that's not legislative. You're applying the policy to a specific set of fact."
The appeals court's ruling could set important precedent on the scope of legislative privilege.
Other Florida's book banning lawsuits could set important precedents, too, especially related to the First Amendment. This isn't even the only book banning-related lawsuit that's been filed against the Escambia school system.
The authors of "And Tango Makes Three" — which is the book the 7-year-old wanted access to — sued over its removal. It's a children's picture book based on a true story that follows two male penguins raising a chick together in a zoo.
This case, too, sits in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The authors appealed after a judge sided with the school board. (That judge also sided with the board on legislative privilege.)
Despite facing financial pressures, the school district had spent nearly $1 million defending against the two lawsuits by the end of May 2025.
ALSO READ: Despite budgetary pressures, this Florida school board spends big bucks on banning books
The school district didn't respond to a request for comment.
There are two more Florida book banning cases in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: challenges against one of the new state laws that propelled Florida into becoming the No. 1 state for book bans.
If you have any questions about state government or the legislative process, you can ask the Your Florida team by clicking here.
This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Copyright 2026 WUSF 89.7
