DES MOINES, Iowa. Iowa may implement a book ban this school year following a ruling Friday by a federal appeals court.
He Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals The U.S. District Court overturned a district judge’s earlier decision that temporarily halted key parts of the law, including a ban on books depicting sexual acts, in school libraries and classrooms.
The law, which the Republican-led Legislature and Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds passed in 2023, also prohibits teachers from raising issues of gender identity and sexual orientation with younger students.
Reynolds said in a statement that the ruling reinforces the belief that “it should be up to parents to decide when and if sexually explicit books are appropriate for their children.”
“This victory ensures age-appropriate books and curricula are available in classrooms and school libraries,” Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said in a statement. “With this victory, parents will no longer have to fear what their children have access to in schools when they are not around.”
LGBTQIA+ youth, teachers and major publishers sued in November to permanently overturn the law, which they say led to hundreds of books being removed from Iowa schools before U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher blocked its enforcement in December.
In addition to removing LGBTQ+-themed books from libraries, schools also shut down after-school clubs that dealt with these issues and removed pride flags from classrooms, the students’ lawyers argued in court. Students were forced to self-censor about their gender identities and sexual orientations, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers.
“Denying LGBTQ+ youth the ability to see themselves represented in classrooms and books sends a harmful message of shame and stigma that should not exist in schools,” attorneys for the plaintiffs, Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Iowa and Jenner & Block, said in a joint statement.
Iowa state attorneys argued that the law is constitutional and that the state has the right to enforce it.
Iowa enacted its law amid a wave of similar laws across the country. Republican lawmakers typically propose these laws, claiming they are designed to affirm parental rights and protect children. The laws often seek to ban discussion of gender and sexual orientation, prohibit treatments such as puberty blockers for transgender children and restrict bathroom use in schools. Many of them have been challenged in court.
