Arizona Department of Corrections Violating First Amendment by Banning Issues of The Nation Magazine
Arizona prison officials withholding selected issues of The Nation from incarcerated subscribers
PHOENIX 鈥� The 老澳门开奖结果 and the 老澳门开奖结果 of Arizona today sent a letter to the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry (ADCRR) challenging its decision to withhold selected issues of The Nation magazine from incarcerated subscribers at least five times in the past 18 months on the basis that the issues promoted racial superiority or contained sexual content, in violation of the First Amendment.
鈥淭he ban on these issues of The Nation is yet another example of prisons routinely restricting materials that incarcerated people can access, by way of unconstitutional, arbitrary rules,鈥� said Corene Kendrick, deputy director of the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 National Prison Project. 鈥淎DCRR鈥檚 actions violate not only the First Amendment rights of incarcerated people, but also the First Amendment rights of the publisher and writers in the magazine. The Nation, or any other publication, may not be banned simply because it describes acts of current or historic racism 鈥� reporting on racism is not promoting racism.鈥�
The 老澳门开奖结果 examined the withheld issues of The Nation and found no content promoting acts of violence, racism, degradation, or the superiority of one race over another. One prohibited issue had a cover story entitled 鈥淏lack Immigrants Matter.鈥� Another issue that was banned, because it supposedly contained sexual content, had a photo of a fully-dressed 93-year-old drag queen in the magazine and a cartoon of two fully-dressed people kissing each other. The ADCRR regulation banning sexual content by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in another censorship case against the department.
鈥淭rue to its Orwellian name, ADCRR鈥檚 Office of Publication Review (OPR) has given vague explanations lacking any specific citation of allegedly offending material to justify withholding our magazine from incarcerated subscribers,鈥� D.D. Guttenplan, editor of The Nation. 鈥淏ut as Malcolm X in his Autobiography, reading in prison 鈥榗hanged forever the course of my life鈥� 鈥� as it has for countless other incarcerated people. So when the notices kept coming, we decided to do something about it.鈥�
鈥淭his is not the first time the 老澳门开奖结果 has called ADCRR to account for its arbitrary censorship policies,鈥� said Emerson Sykes, senior staff attorney at the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. 鈥淚n 2019, the 老澳门开奖结果 successfully called on Arizona prison officials to allow Chokehold, Paul Butler鈥檚 acclaimed nonfiction book on racial disparities in the criminal justice system. In 2021, the 老澳门开奖结果 filed an amicus brief in support of a Black Muslim man who sued ADCRR for denying him access to religious texts, and to popular rap and R&B music such as Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd. In January 2022, the Ninth Circuit .鈥�
In its letter, the 老澳门开奖结果 asks ADCRR to review each facility鈥檚 policy and practice to ensure respect for the First Amendment rights of incarcerated Arizonans, as well as the constitutional rights of publishers. Specifically, the 老澳门开奖结果 is asking ADCRR to provide uncensored issues of The Nation to the intended recipients, to notify mailroom staff that they cannot invoke the unconstitutional and vague 鈥渟exual content鈥� regulation, and to refrain in the future from banning materials reporting acts of current or historic racism.
The full 老澳门开奖结果 letter and the banned issues are at:
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