Book Bans

A federal judge filed a preliminary injunction against Iowa’s “incredibly broad” book banning law, which was set to take effect on January 1. The law would restrict from school and classroom libraries any book that describes or depicts sex, and any book about sexuality or gender identity (the latter half of the law was blocked on December 22). Penguin Random House and four authors filed suit to block the provision in November. In the filing, Judge Stephen Locher noted that the law “has resulted in the removal of hundreds of books from school libraries, including, among others, nonfiction history books, […]

In a preliminary victory for Penguin Random House in their suit claiming that Iowa’s book bans are unconstitutional, the state conceded that books about sexual orientation and gender identity will be allowed in school and classroom libraries. According to a press release, “students will be able to access them freely, read, and do reports on them.” This concession covers half of the publisher’s case against Iowa, which they brought with authors, educators, a student and parent, and the Iowa State Education Association. The other half concerns books that describe or visually depict sex, regardless of context, which are restricted through […]

Penguin Random House and a group of four authors—Malinda Lo, Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, and Jodi Picoult—have filed a lawsuit against the state of Iowa over a recently-enacted law that prohibits any books describing or depicting sex from appearing in public school or classroom libraries. The law, SF 496, also restricts books that include themes of sexual orientation or gender identity from students through sixth grade. (Other plaintiffs include the Iowa State Education Association, one Iowa librarian, two teachers, and one high school student.) The suit claims the book ban provisions of the law violate the First and Fourteenth […]

Oral arguments began today in the Book People v. Wong case against Texas’s READER book banning law before a panel of judges. The defense largely argued that the plaintiffs’ claims aren’t ripe, and that their assertations of harm are not sufficient. Judges often asked about the definitions of “sexually explicit” and “sexually relevant,” since booksellers would be barred from selling books categorized as such to public schools. While defense attorney Kateland Jackson explained that the definitions come from the penal code, plaintiffs’ counsel Laura Lee Prather argued that those definitions are “cherry picked” from the penal code, mostly dealing with […]