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Civil rights groups try again to block Iowa’s book law
Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa have filed a new request for the courts to block Iowa’s law that bars certain books from school libraries. The two organizations are again challenging Senate File 496, the 2023 Iowa law that prohibits school libraries from having books containing sexually explicit material and limits instruction and materials involving gender and sexuality for K-6 students. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports the organizations also filed suit last year against a law that requires schools to inform parents or guardians if a student requests the use of a different name or pronouns than what they were assigned at birth.
In January 2024, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Locher blocked the law from enforcement. But that injunction was lifted in August when a three-person panel of federal appeals court judges ruled that the previous decision was made using a “flawed analysis of the law.” The new court filing made Friday requests that the law be once again blocked from enforcement through a new, separate preliminary injunction. The basis for the renewed request cites a new U.S. Supreme Court case challenging the law using the “overbreadth doctrine.”
According to an analysis from the Des Moines Register, more than 1,000 books have been taken off of school shelves due to the law. However, there is ambiguity about whether some of the pulled books could remain at schools. Iowa Department of Education did not grant requests from educators in 2023 to clarify which materials would be considered “age-appropriate” under the law, saying instead the department would address allegations of noncompliance on a case-by-case basis. Classic literature including “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut and “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee have been removed from some Iowa school districts.
There were also changes made to the plaintiffs as part of the new injunction request. Two Iowa teachers affected by the bans were added to the lawsuit, while two students — one who graduated from high school, and another who transferred to a private school, left the case as they were no longer impacted by the law. Iowa Safe Schools remains a plaintiff in the case.
