CBLDF Joins Michigan "Harmful to Minors" Fight

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has joined a coalition of
booksellers, publishers and magazine distributors in filing a federal
lawsuit in Detroit last Monday that challenges the constitutionality
of a new Michigan law that makes it a crime to allow a minor to
examine a book that is "harmful to minors." "This law
poses a serious threat to the way comic and booksellers conduct their
businesses," Charles Brownstein, Executive Director of the Comic
Book Legal Defense Fund said.

It is already illegal to sell "harmful" material to minors in
Michigan and most other states. But the new Michigan law goes beyond
the law of any other state by requiring booksellers to prevent any
possibility that a minor can examine "harmful" works,
including novels and works of non-fiction that do not contain
pictures.

Violations are punishable by up to two years in jail and a fine of up
to $10,000. The measure was signed into law by Governor Jennifer
Granholm on November 5 and went into effect on January 1. Plaintiffs
filed a motion in federal district court seeking a preliminary
injunction to block enforcement of the law.

Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for
Free Expression (ABFFE), one of the lead plaintiffs, said the new law
is unconstitutional because it would make it difficult for adults and
older minors to obtain books, magazines and music that they have a
First Amendment right to purchase. "If booksellers can be sent to
jail for two years because a kid picks up the wrong book, they will
have no choice but to protect themselves by rigidly restricting what
their customers can see," he said. Comic and booksellers will
either have to segregate "harmful" material in an "adults
only" section or to wrap it in plastic. In addition, they will
be forced to impose these restrictions on books and other materials
that are "harmful" to the youngest minors, including romance
novels, works relating to sexual education and health, photography
and art books, and classic literary texts.

Brownstein says, "This law renders classics of the graphic novel
form such as A Contract With God, Stuck Rubber Baby, and Sandman
vulnerable to unwarranted prosecution. If enforced, this law
endanger the First Amendment rights of both sellers and readers of
graphic novels and prose books."

In fighting this case, the CBLDF joined ABFFE, the Great Lakes
Booksellers Association, six bookstores, the Association of American
Publishers, the Freedom to Read Foundation, and the International
Periodical Distributors Association.

The plaintiffs are represented by Herschel P. Fink of Honigman Miller
Schwartz & Cohn LLP, in Detroit, and Michael A. Bamberger of
Sonnenschein Nath and Rosenthal in New York.