Advocacy

On July 29 and 30, retailers from across the country, including ABA President Steve Bercu, gathered in Washington, D.C., to participate in the National Retail Federation’s Retail Advocates Summit to advocate on a number of key policy issues. 

On Tuesday, July 22, two legal challenges to provisions for health care subsidies in the Affordable Care Act resulted in contradictory rulings from federal appeals courts.

Sen. Patrick Leahy has introduced legislation that is a much stronger version of the U.S.A. Freedom Act, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in May.

MLRC Institute, the sister organization of the Media Law Resource Center, will be working with ABFFE to provide speakers for bookstores that are interested in hosting a program about censorship during Banned Books Week (September 21 – 27, 2014).

On Thursday, July 17, in a letter sent to every member of the U.S. Senate, Advocates for Independent Business urged congressional support for the Marketplace and Internet Tax Fairness Act, which was introduced in the Senate on Tuesday, July 15.

In response to the removal of Emily Danforth’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post from a high school reading list, Browseabout Books is giving away copies, which have been donated by community members, book industry partners, and readers of AfterEllen.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge brought by the Direct Marketing Association regarding the constitutionality of a 2010 Colorado law requiring out-of-state retailers to either collect and remit sales tax for purchases made by Colorado residents or to inform their Colorado customers that they owe use tax on the purchases they have made.

The European and International Booksellers Federation has announced its strong support for the decision by the German Publishers and Booksellers Association (Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels) to file an official complaint against Amazon with the German Federal Antitrust Authority.

On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee approved the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act, which places a ban on state and local taxation of Internet access. The Marketplace Fairness Coalition urged the committee to treat e-fairness with the same sense of urgency.

Two auctions of children’s book art held in conjunction with this year’s BookExpo America have raised more than $56,000 to help the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression defend the free speech rights of kids.

On Monday, June 16, the National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association urged an appeals court to overturn a federal judge’s approval of a controversial lawsuit settlement over Visa and MasterCard’s credit card swipe fees.

In a unanimous decision on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court kept the court house door open to booksellers, publishers, and librarians to bring “pre-enforcement” challenges to censorship laws.

With the House Judiciary Committee’s unanimous passage of bill a couple of weeks ago, for the first time in years there is a  chance for meaningful change in the laws to protect Americans’ right to privacy, says ABFFE President Chris Finan.

The IRS has issued a notice stressing that employers that reimburse their employees pre-tax for premiums under a Health Reimbursement Account to pay for insurance in a health exchange could be subject to a fine of $100 per day per employee.

ABFFE and the national Banned Books Week planning committee have announced that this year’s celebration of the freedom to read will feature comics and graphic novels.