In a significant pro bono win, Jenner & Block successfully challenged a censorship policy at the City of Huntington Beach’s public libraries.
On September 5, Orange County Superior Court Judge Lindsey Martinez granted the firm’s petition for writ of mandate, striking down a policy that required parental consent for minors to access books with "sexual content"—a definition so broad that it could have included health education materials, young adult novels, and even classic works of literature such as Romeo and Juliet and The Great Gatsby.
Filed with co-counsel partnering organizations ACLU of Southern California, the California First Amendment Coalition, and California Legal Aid, the case was brought on behalf of high school students, parents, and community advocacy organization Alianza Translatinx.
The ruling marks a significant judicial interpretation of California’s Freedom to Read Act (FTRA), which prohibits public libraries from limiting access to materials based on their content or viewpoint. In rejecting the City’s arguments on home-rule authority and mootness, the court affirmed that Huntington Beach’s policies violated state law and were unenforceable.
This outcome was the result of the dedicated work of Partners A.J. Thomas and Lauren Greene, Special Counsel Andrew Sullivan, former associate Eddie Crouse, Supervising Paralegal Manuel Salas, and Legal Practice Assistant Laura Saltzman.