Iowa calls for reinstatement of law banning sexually explicit books in schools

(The Center Square) – A temporary restraining order stopping the implementation of Iowa’s ban on sexually explicit books in school libraries should be lifted, Iowa Attorney General Eric Wessan argued Tuesday before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

A federal judge issued the temporary injunction against the book ban in December. It is part of Senate File 496, which was passed by the Iowa Legislature in 2023 and is separately opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union and publisher Penguin Random House. The court also blocked a provision banning discussions of gender or sexuality in Iowa classrooms.

The three-judge panel, which did not identify itself in the court transcript, asked why the law was being challenged on the face of it. A face of it challenge calls into question the unconstitutionality of a law.

A judge said that a refusal to use facial expressions should only be used as a last resort.

“There is no final resort here,” said the judge. “This is not an interpretation. This is a quote.”

According to Fred Sperling, a lawyer for Penguin Random House, the problem is that an enormous number of books have been removed from the shelves.

“The question before this court is not whether some of the books the defendants reference can be constitutionally removed from school libraries,” Sperling said. “They can, and they were under existing law before the passage of 496. The question before this court is whether this overly broad and vague law is constitutional, and it is not.”

The panel continued to question Sperling and ACLU attorney Thomas Story about the need for a constitutional challenge.

“I think what’s going on here is that school districts are panicking,” one judge said. “They’re applying it beyond the language of the law itself, and we’re sitting in a world where we’re talking about 3,400 books and what’s bad about them. Some people are saying ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ has to go, and you know, those are all concrete ideas that could have been brought to court, right?”

Wessan said the state does not believe contesting the charge is necessary.

“The state believes that when this injunction is lifted, school districts, schools and students will understand what the law means and that over time this will become an integral part of Iowa’s educational landscape,” Wessan said.

The judges gave no indication as to when they would announce their decision.