Report: “Why Book Publishing Giant Penguin is Claiming a Partial Victory in Iowa’s Book Ban Ruling”

From the Des Moines Register (via Iowa City Press-Citizen):

The country’s largest book publisher says it doesn’t see a court ruling that reinstated Iowa’s book ban law as a complete setback.

Penguin Random House, a major publishing company, is part one of two federal lawsuits challenging Senate File 496, a sweeping education law signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds in 2023. Penguin is joined by several other plaintiffs, including the Iowa State Education Association, Iowa educators and authors whose books were banned.

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“This case is about getting these books back for good,” said Dan Novack, vice president and associate general counsel of Penguin Random House. “The court has taken away the greatest arrow in the state’s quiver for keeping them off the shelves.”

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Penguin officials expect to update its complaint in the coming weeks.

The publisher is working on a reasonable standard for obscenity that is rooted in existing legal precedent but also preserves local control over what is appropriate in individual communities, Novack said.

Although many Penguin books have been banned in Iowa, he says the publisher does not sell anything it would consider pornographic.

The updated complaint will remove issues that have been settled in court and will add at least one more plaintiff, Novack said.

Direct to Full Text (about 900 words)

Note: Archived Copy of Article Available Here

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