Top publisher, authors sue over Iowa’s school library book ban

DES MOINES — Penguin Random House, the Iowa State Education Association and some bestselling authors are suing the state of Iowa over a new law that bans books with sexual content from public school libraries, arguing the law violates First Amendment free speech rights.

The publishing giant filed the lawsuit in federal court Thursday, naming Iowa State Board of Education President John Robbins, Iowa State Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow and a number of local school districts and officials as defendants.

Bestselling authors including John Green, Jodi Picoult and Malinda Lo are named as plaintiffs. An anonymous high school student and a parent, along with three teachers, also joined the lawsuit.

The lawsuit argues the restrictions imposed by Senate File 496 are overly broad and pose an unconstitutional restriction on speech and the right to receive information.

The law, passed by Republican lawmakers this year and signed into law by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, prohibits books in public school libraries that include descriptions or depictions of any of a list of defined sex acts.

The law includes several other provisions, including a ban on teaching about gender and sexuality before seventh grade, a requirement that schools inform parents if a student asks to be referred to in school by a different name or set of gender pronouns, and other requirements intended to expand transparency at public schools.

It is the second lawsuit filed this week against the law. Iowa Safe Schools, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, filed a separate federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging the law.

What does the lawsuit argue?

The new lawsuit seeks to strike down only the portion of the law that restricts books in school libraries, while the Iowa Safe Schools lawsuit seeks to strike down the entire law.

Penguin Random House has been involved in litigation over book banning legislation in other states, including a lawsuit against a school district in Florida over removal of library books there.

“Government authorities cannot violate the First Amendment right to free speech by pretending that school grounds are constitutional no-fly zones,” said Dan Novack, vice president and associate general counsel at Penguin Random House.

Novack said there is a distinction between a school's curriculum and its library, which traditionally has been a place where students could freely access information regardless of its content. He argued removing a book based solely on the presence of a sex act or LGBTQ themes circumvents existing obscenity laws and should not be the role of the state government.

"Sex, race, politics — no idea can be banned by government authorities," he said "There's a universal position here that applies with equal force."

The lawsuit argues the Iowa law’s “age-appropriate” prohibition on descriptions or depictions of sex acts goes beyond prohibiting obscene or pornographic books, saying it is an overly broad prohibition that violates students’ First Amendment rights.

The suit argues the law prohibits books with even a brief description of a sex act for students of all ages without any evaluation of the book as a whole or its literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

"Under the Age-Appropriate Standard, highly-regarded books — even ones that have been on shelves for many decades — must be removed from school and classroom libraries in Iowa if they contain a description of a sex act, even if the books taken as a whole are not obscene,“ the suit states.

What do Republican lawmakers say?

Iowa Republican lawmakers have defended the law as a measure to prohibit pornographic books from public schools. But in implementing the law, some school districts have removed classic books such as George Orwell’s “1984” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five.”

“The sexualization of children in schools does not have a place in Iowa,” Republican Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley said in a statement. “This is a responsible and reasonable law that I believe all Iowans could get behind if the far left and the media would stop playing politics and accurately represent what is actually in the law."

Republican Iowa Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver said in an emailed statement that Senate Republicans “will continue to advance policies to empower parents so Iowa students receive the best education in the country.”

A spokesperson for Reynolds pointed to an earlier statement in response to the ACLU lawsuit against the law, in which she said the law’s goals “shouldn’t be controversial.”

“The real (controversy) is that it exists in elementary schools,” she said. ”Books with graphic depictions of sex acts have absolutely no place in our schools.”

The Iowa Board of Education has proposed rules for implementing the law, though school officials have said they do not clear up all the ambiguities and confusion school districts are facing.

What do authors say about the law?

Lo and Laurie Halse Anderson, two of the authors who joined the lawsuit, said during Thursday's news conference the law prevents students from reading their books and exploring perspectives with which they may identify.

Anderson's 1999 award-winning novel "Speak," which centers on a 13-year-old who is raped at a party and her struggle to talk about the experience, has been removed from some Iowa schools because of the law. She said the law limits the ability of students to learn about important topics like sexual assault.

"When confronted with challenging topics like sexual violence, some people prefer to stick their heads in the sand," she said. "That makes children vulnerable to predators. And it ensures that another generation of adults will grow up to become predators. … Literature has the power to open hearts, fuel souls and promote growth and understanding."

Lo's 2021 novel "Last Night at the Telegraph Club," which has been removed from some Iowa school districts, details a Chinese-American teenager who realizes she is queer. Lo said the new law serves to stigmatize LGBTQ identities by limiting access to materials about them.

"Seeing yourself in a book can be a transformative and empowering experience, one that I rarely had when I was growing up," she said. "This is why I write about queer and Asian American characters."

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Tom Barton of The Gazette’s Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report.