Following an August 9 ruling by the Eighth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, a coalition of publishers, authors, and advocates this week filed a new complaint seeking to strike down the sweeping book ban provision in Iowa’s controversial law, SF 496.
The new filing features an expanded roster of plaintiffs, including all of the Big Five publishers and the Authors Guild, as well as the Iowa State Education Association (ISEA), four authors (Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, Malinda Lo, and Jodi Picoult), two educators, and a high school student. And, according to a release by the plaintiffs, it narrows the suit’s claims to “focus exclusively on the prohibition against any books containing sexual content.”
First signed by Iowa governor Kim Reynolds in May 2023, SF 496, among its provisions, bans books and materials with depictions of sex from school libraries. In response, various Iowa school districts have reportedly pulled hundreds of titles from their shelves—more than 3,400, according to one study by the Des Moines Register. Following two lawsuits filed in November 2023, judge Stephen Locher blocked key provisions of the law on December 29, 2023.
On appeal, however, the Eighth Circuit in August vacated the injunction and remanded the case back to Locher for a more thorough analysis of whether the plaintiffs' "facial challenge" to the law—a legal term that applies to claims that a government policy is unconstitutional as written—was proper at this juncture. But in vacating the injunction, the appeals court also handed the plaintiffs a significant legal victory, rejecting the state’s core legal defense—that the placement and removal of books from public school libraries and classrooms is “government speech,” and thus not subject to First Amendment claims.
The government speech doctrine holds that the First Amendment does not impose “a requirement of viewpoint-neutrality” on speech undertaken by the government.
The renewed action in Iowa comes after lawyers for Llano County pressed a similar government speech argument this week, before the full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, in another closely-watched book banning case. In their arguments, lawyers for Llano County urged the Fifth Circuit to “respectfully disagree” with the Eighth Circuit’s decision.
In addition, on August 29, the publisher plaintiffs, along with Sourcebooks and other advocates, filed a lawsuit against the state of Florida challenging what the suit alleges is an unconstitutional book removal provision in Florida House Bill 1069.
In a September 12 report, PEN America found that book bans in school libraries have surged from 3,362 in the 2022-2023 school year to more than 10,000 in the 2023-2024 school year. Some 8,000 of those bans came in Iowa and Florida following the enactment of new legislation.
“We must continue to stand together—alongside educators, librarians, students, authors, and readers—to protect the freedom to read and fight against the unconstitutional censorship measures being imposed by the state of Iowa,” reads a joint statement issued by the plaintiffs. “We will do everything we can to strike down SF 496’s remaining book ban provision and defend the fundamental rights of Iowans to read, think, and learn freely.”
