Florida state prison authorities informed the Militant that the Florida Department of Corrections Literature Review Committee would hold an initial hearing March 6 to discuss the impoundment of the Militant’s Jan. 20, 2025, issue at the Santa Rosa Correctional Institution and other prisons across the state. But as the Militant goes to press, the paper’s attorney, David Goldstein, has not been told what the committee decided.
Two subscribers at the prison informed the Militant in February that their copies of this issue, no. 2, had been impounded. The notice they received said the paper had been rejected at “another institution,” which it does not identify. When authorities at any prison in Florida ban a publication, the Department of Corrections impounds them for all subscribers statewide. The Militant has more than 100 subscribers in Florida prisons today.
Santa Rosa authorities claim the Militant issue “presents a threat to the security, order or rehabilitative objectives of the correctional system or the safety of any person.”
They say two articles in the issue are “inadmissible” — one on the front page, “Israel fights for right to exist as a refuge from Jew-hatred,” and one on page 7, “Jew-hatred, ‘racial purity’ at heart of Hamas program.”
The first article reports on political developments in the Middle East, explaining the importance of Israel’s fight to defend its existence as a refuge from Jew-hatred and pogroms, like the murderous assault carried out against Jews in Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. This was the deadliest pogrom in the world since the Holocaust.
The second article demonstrated how Hamas’ origins came out of reactionary Jew-hating Arab forces that collaborated with Adolf Hitler’s drive for a “Final Solution” in World War II.
Articles don’t ‘threaten security’
“The impoundment notice, however, does not explain why these articles present a threat to the security, order, or rehabilitative objectives of the correctional system or the safety of any person,” Daniel Tilley, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, wrote in an urgent letter to the Literature Review Committee March 5, the day before the hearing.
“And, upon reading these articles, one struggles in vain to imagine how they could threaten security in any way,” Tilley wrote.
“The banning of a particular publication represents content-based censorship, and it is unlawful without a showing that the prohibition is ‘reasonably related to legitimate penological interests’ and that the censored material in fact implicates legitimate security concerns.
“A regulation cannot be sustained where the logical connection between the regulation and the asserted goal is so remote as to render the policy arbitrary or irrational,” he added, “or is an ‘exaggerated response’ to prison concerns in light of available alternatives.
“Here, given the lack of any other reasons provided, it appears that the mere references to Israel and Gaza alone were the basis for the impoundment. Under no version of the constitutional standard is that action lawful.”
The ACLU letter follows similar letters opposing the banning of the Militant from Samuel Morley, general counsel for the Florida Press Association; Justin Mazzola, deputy director of research for Amnesty International USA; and many others.
The Militant urges supporters of the rights of prisoners, freedom of speech and the press to write to the Literature Review Committee urging it to reverse the ban on the issue. There are over 10 Militant subscribers in Santa Rosa prison. Over the years the Militant has fought a number of impoundments at various Florida prisons, winning most of them.
The Militant currently has more than 300 subscribers behind bars in 30 states. “Our fight is not just for the Militant,” John Studer, editor of the Militant, said. “We defend the right of prisoners to read the papers and books they want, to follow world politics, labor issues and other questions to be able to discuss and participate in politics.
“Freedom of the press is involved as well,” he said. “We have the right to get our views out, whether our subscribers are in or outside prison walls.”
If the Literature Review Committee decided to uphold the impoundment March 6, Studer said, the Militant has the right to appeal and file a brief explaining why the ban should be overturned.
Send letters to Saritza.Legault@fdc.myflorida.com and Melvin.Herring@fdc.myflorida.com, with a copy to themilitant@mac.com.