For further information, contact:

Chris Finan, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, (212) 587-4025
Theresa Chmara, Jenner & Block, (202) 639-6049
Dan Mach, Jenner & Block, (202) 637-6313

For Immediate Release

FORT SMITH, ARKANSAS, April 23, 2003–A federal judge here has ordered the Cedarville school district to return J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books to the open shelves of its libraries. In a decision
announced late yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Jimm L. Hendren said the books must be displayed "where they can be accessed without any restrictions other than those administrative restrictions that apply to all works of fiction in the libraries of the district."

A student and her parents sued the Cedarville school board last year after it removed the books in response to a complaint that the books show "that there are ‘good witches' and ‘good magic'" and that they teach "parents/teachers/rules are stupid and something to be ignored." A dozen national groups and author Judy Blume filed a friend of the court brief supporting Dakota Counts and her parents, Billy Ray and Mary. "It is the bravery of people like the Counts that protects free speech in this country," said Chris Finan, the president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), one of the sponsors of the friend of the court brief.

Judge Hendren said there was no evidence to support the school board's claim that the books were encouraging disobedience and threatening the orderly operation of the schools. He concluded that
the majority of the board members voted to "restrict access to the books because of their shared belief that the books promote a particular religion." This violated the First Amendment rights of the
students. "Regardless of the personal distaste with which these individuals regard ‘witchcraft,' it is not properly within their power and authority as members of defendant's school board to prevent the
students at Cedarville from reading about it," Hendren said.

This was the first legal challenge to a restriction on the use of Harry Potter books in a public school. For the last four years, the Potter books have been the most frequently challenged books in the
country, according to the American Library Association.

In addition to ABFFE and Judy Blume, the amicus brief is signed by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Association of American Publishers, the Association of Booksellers for Children, the Center for First Amendment Rights, the Children's Book Council, Feminists for Free Expression, the Freedom to Read Foundation, the National Coalition Against Censorship, Peacefire, PEN American Center, People for the American Way Foundation, the Student Press Law Center,
and Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts.