Florida Republicans might be backing off support for Gov. Ron DeSantis' notorious book bans after being caught off-guard by national backlash, according to a report.
Florida has become infamous as the epicenter of book censorship activism in schools, even as DeSantis has insisted the whole thing is a liberal "hoax" to make his state look bad.
But the state's Republican legislature is starting to worry the action has gone too far, reported Politico, with lawmakers considering new rules to limit how many challenges can be brought.
Legislators "introduced a new idea to curb frivolous challenges to books" this month, which is "one of the first admissions the law, which tightened scrutiny around books with sexual content in K-12 schools, may have gone too far. The potential solution: allowing local schools to charge some people a $100 fee if they want to object to more than five books."
GOP state Rep. Dana Trabulsy, who sponsored the legislation, said, “I’m happy that we are digging in and trying to remove reading material that is inappropriate for our children. But I think [book challengers] really need to be respectful of the amount of books that they are pouring into schools at one time.”
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Many of the book challenges have been brought by the far-right group Moms for Liberty, which works arm-in-arm on challenges with the Proud Boys, a notorious street-brawling organization whose leaders have been convicted of seditious conspiracy for their role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Moms for Liberty is currently reeling after a series of election losses and a scandal involving one of its founders and her husband, Florida GOP Chair Christian Ziegler, who is accused of rape by a woman with whom both husband and wife allegedly had a sexual relationship.
All of this is unfolding as some of DeSantis' other culture war projects, like his battle against Disney, stumble, and as his own presidential ambitions appear to be fading as former President Donald Trump is currently running away with the 2024 primary vote.
