Biden-appointed Judge blocks Iowa from removing obscene books from children’s libraries

A Biden-appointed judge Tuesday blocked an Iowa law requiring all K-12 schools to remove books that feature obscene material and sexual depictions from libraries.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher blocked part of Iowa’s Senate File 496, which also bans “instruction related to gender identity and sexual orientation,” due to a lack of constitutional ground for issuing “categorical, content-based rules on books in school libraries,” according to court documents. The ruling is the latest action in a multi-year-long battle over Iowa’s law.

“Senate File 496 makes no attempt to evaluate a book’s literary, political, artistic, or scientific value before requiring the book’s removal from a school library and thus comes nowhere close to applying the ‘obscenity’ standard that is typically used to determine the constitutionality of statewide book restrictions,” the ruling states. “The result is the forced removal of books from school libraries that are not pornographic or obscene.”

The law specifically prohibits public and private schools from teaching or providing “material with descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act,” according to the bill’s text.

Senate File 496 was signed into law by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds in May of 2023 but was challenged by Penguin Random House, which publishes several books that could be removed under the law, and the Iowa State Education Association in December of the same year. Judge Locher issued a preliminary injunction later that month which was then vacated the following August by an appeals court.

“As a mom, I know how important it is to keep schools a safe place for kids to learn and grow,” Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird wrote in a statement following the decision. “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.”

Several states have attempted to implement similar laws preventing explicit content from being taught to children, though many have faced similar challenges.

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