A federal judge has temporarily halted the enforcement of a controversial Iowa law that sought to remove books with LGBTQ+ themes or descriptions of sexual acts from school libraries, calling into question the law’s constitutionality and its religious bias.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher issued a fresh preliminary injunction against Senate File 496 (S.F. 496), which was passed in May 2023 as part of a broader “Don’t Say Gay” initiative championed by Republican Governor Kim Reynolds. The law restricts classroom instruction on LGBTQ+ topics for students from kindergarten through year six and mandates that only “age-appropriate” books be available in school libraries.
Locher, a Biden appointee, had initially blocked most provisions of the law in December 2023, but that decision was vacated in August 2024 by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which directed the lower court to reassess the ruling using a more rigorous standard of review.
Following the appellate court’s direction, Locher reinstated the injunction on Tuesday, stating in his 40-page opinion that many of the 3,400 books removed under the law are not pornographic or obscene. He argued that the state failed to apply the standard typically used to assess book bans, which considers a book’s literary, political, artistic, or scientific merit.
“S.F. 496 makes no attempt to evaluate a book’s literary, political, artistic, or scientific value before requiring the book’s removal from a school library,” Locher wrote. “The result is the forced removal of books from school libraries that are not pornographic or obscene.”
Books like 1984 by George Orwell and Maus by Art Spiegelman were among those banned, raising concerns over the vague definition of “age-appropriate” material. In contrast, religious texts such as the King James Bible remained exempt, despite containing graphic content.
Locher pointedly addressed this discrepancy in his ruling: “The fact that the Bible and other religious texts are exempted from Senate File 496 reinforces the problem because it shows that even the Iowa Legislature does not believe all books involving sex acts are devoid of pedagogical value,” he wrote. “There is no substantial or reasonable governmental interest that would justify allowing some books with sexual content to be in school libraries but not others.”
Two lawsuits were filed against the law. One was brought by the Iowa State Education Association, book publishers like Penguin Random House, and authors including John Green and Jodi Picoult. The other was filed by Iowa Safe Schools, alongside parents and students represented by Lambda Legal, the ACLU, and law firm Jenner & Block.
The plaintiffs argue that the law’s scope is overly broad, its age considerations arbitrary, and that it also forces schools to “out” transgender students who request name or pronoun changes—a provision that remains in place for now.
Judge Locher is expected to issue a ruling on the Iowa Safe Schools lawsuit in the near future. However, both cases are expected to face appeals, potentially taking the matter to higher courts.
