Report: “State Asks Federal Court to Lift Injunction on Iowa Book Ban Law, ‘Support Iowa’s Youth'”

From The Des Moines Register:

An attorney representing Iowa argued before a federal appeals court Tuesday that an injunction against the state’s book ban law should be lifted, a decision that would affect the fate of thousands of books in public school libraries and what can be taught to many Iowa students.

Attorney Eric H. Wessan, representing the state, argued before Judges James B. Loken, Ralph R. Erickson and L. Steven Grasz in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Paul, Minnesota, against an injunction from two lawsuits against Iowa Senate File 496. The injunction, issued in late December, halted enforcement of the 2023 law, which bans books that depict sex acts from Iowa public schools and prohibits instruction and curriculum about gender identity and sexual orientation through sixth grade.

“This law was done by the Iowa Legislature with the intent of helping support Iowa’s youth and in helping to curate the way that Iowa students learn,” Wessan said. The injunction “has stymied that,” he said.

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Two separate lawsuits are challenging the law. Attorneys representing the plaintiffs, which include LGBTQ students and their families, educators, publishers and authors whose books are banned, argued that the law is unconstitutional.

“The question before this court is whether this overbroad and vague statute is constitutional, and it’s not,” said Frederick J. Sperling, who represents the plaintiffs in the case brought by publisher Penguin Random House.

Sperling argued that districts have removed books without consideration of their merits, and that’s meant books that are not considered obscene under the law have been removed from shelves.

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See Also: Coverage From KCCI

The law, which the Republican-led Legislature and GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds approved early in 2023, bans books depicting sex acts from school libraries and classrooms and forbids teachers from raising gender identity and sexual orientation issues with students through the sixth grade.

The law remains confusing, a teachers’ group said.

“There’s a need for guidance in how to implement that law,” said Christy Hickman, general counsel for the Iowa State Education Association. “They don’t have that now.”

See Also: Des Moines Register: “Banishing Captain Underpants: An Investigation of the 3,400 Books Pulled in Iowa”

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