US Federal Judge Blocks Iowa Book Banning Law 

Authors and publishers such as John Green and Jodi Picoult brought a lawsuit to Iowa after a law intending to ban books depicting sex acts from school libraries and classrooms was being passed. 

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Now, a federal judge has temporarily blocked the measure, stating that banning the books would be unconstitutional, and that “books of undeniable political, artistic, literary, and/or scientific value” have fallen victim to the ban.

Ulysses by James Joyce, 1984 by George Orwell, and Beloved by Toni Morrison being some examples. This marks the second time US district judge Stephen Locher had blocked the ban. 

Senate File 496 is the name of the law, and it was initially approved by Iowa’s Republican-led legislature and governor Kim Reynolds back in 2023. Locher initially placed an injunction on it in December 2023 after both authors and publishers sued the state. 

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The authors argued that the “[ban violated free speech] and goes far beyond prohibiting books that are obscene as to minors because it prohibits books with even a brief description of a sex act for students of all ages without any evaluation of the book as a whole.”

Locher wrote that the ban has resulted in the “forced removal of books from school libraries that are not pornographic or obscene.”

Iowa officials could appeal the ruling, however, and in response to Locher, Iowa attorney general Brenna Bird said “parents shouldn’t have to worry about what materials their kids have access to when they’re not around.”

“This common sense law makes certain that the books kids have access to in school classrooms and libraries are age-appropriate. I’m going to keep on fighting to uphold our law that protects schoolchildren and parental rights,” she said. 

The US has experienced several book banning measures across many states within recent years. Publishers and authors have led the charge in multiple lawsuits against these attempted bans.