A Florida law that was used by conservative groups to ban Assassination Classroom and other famous anime titles has been overturned by a federal judge.

Signed into law in 2022 but expanded in 2023, the law was struck down on the basis of it being a violation of the First Amendment right to free speech.

The Florida bill did two things in relation to book censorship: Demanded school libraries to remove any book containing “obscene” content, and it empowered any resident of any county in Florida to demand any remaining titles removal from the libraries.

We covered how this law was used to ban Assassination Classroom in one Florida county in 2023, but that was just the beginning, with Pen.org documenting nearly 5,000 cases of banned books in Florida, the highest in the nation.

Manga fans were not the only ones critical of the bill that was just overturned. The bill was also criticized by leftist activists, who called it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill due to a provision in the bill banning students from learning about LGBT+ issues in school.

Starting in late 2024, conservative activists affiliated with Moms For Liberty started demanding the removal of all manga titles and light novels from schools and public libraries. This follows a trend of activists in conservative-leaning states such as Texas and North Carolina moving to censor anime. We covered the attempts of Texas Republicans to criminalize the owning of anime such as Goblin Slayer and many other titles.

Governor Ron DeSantis has vowed to appeal the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court. Judge Carlos Mendoza, the judge who overturned the Florida bill, is an Obama appointee. It is anyone’s guess how the more conservative Supreme Court will rule.