Hundreds of Publishing Staffers Call for Cancellation of Amy Coney Barrett’s Book Deal
A whole bunch of publishing staffers have signed an open letter calling on Penguin Random Home to axe Supreme Courtroom Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s $2 million ebook deal as a result of she voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Barrett’s ebook cope with Sentinel, an imprint of Penguin Random Home that focuses on conservative content material, was first reported in April 2021. Politico reported on the time that Barrett had a deal for a ebook about how judges ought to keep away from letting their choices be impacted by private emotions.
In an open letter that had acquired greater than 550 signatures as of Friday afternoon, Barrett’s detractors known as the deal “a case the place a company has privately funded the destruction of human rights with obscene income.”
The letter claims its signatories “care deeply about freedom of speech” and “acknowledge that hurt is finished to a democracy not solely within the type of censorship, but in addition within the type of assault on inalienable human rights.”
“As such, we’re calling on Penguin Random Home to acknowledge its personal historical past and company accountability commitments by reevaluating its determination to maneuver ahead with publishing Supreme Courtroom Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s forthcoming ebook,” the letter mentioned.
“The ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Girls’s Well being that overturned Roe hinged on precisely what Coney Barrett’s ebook is reportedly about—the judiciary’s function and ‘how judges will not be alleged to convey their private emotions into how they rule,’” the letter mentioned. “But, it appears that is precisely what Coney Barrett has carried out, inflicting her personal spiritual and ethical agenda upon all Individuals whereas appropriating the rhetoric of even-handedness—and Penguin Random Home has agreed to pay her a sum of $2 million to do it.”
The letter argues that publishing the ebook would violate each Penguin Random Home’s Code of Conduct and worldwide human rights.
“This isn’t only a ebook that we disagree with, and we aren’t calling for censorship,” the letter mentioned. “Many people work day by day with books we discover unpleasant to our private politics. Relatively, this can be a case the place a company has privately funded the destruction of human rights with obscene income. Coney Barrett is free to say as she needs, however Penguin Random Home should resolve whether or not to fund her place on the expense of human rights in an effort to inflate its backside line, or to actually stand behind the values it proudly espouses to carry.”
Signatories embody workers of Penguin Random Home, HarperCollins, and Barnes & Noble, in addition to different publishers, authors and members of the press.
“With the midterms developing, and the 2024 election looming, the group determined it was time to make an announcement,” @publishersbrunch informed Publishers Weekly on behalf of the group of signatories. “We can not, and won’t, amplify the voices of extremists (like Amy Coney Barrett) who would gladly take away the rights of thousands and thousands of Individuals if given the prospect. I’m extraordinarily proud to see the responses up to now and hope that this motion encourages others within the business to talk out!”
