Iowa (RI) — A federal judge has blocked the state for the second time from enforcing a law that seeks to keep books with sexual content out of school libraries. Attorney Dan Novack says a broad ban on books with sex acts would deny students information.
Penguin Random House joined other major publishing houses in arguing against the library restrictions. Supporters of the law like Attorney General Brenna Bird say it’s a critical law that ensures the books in K-12 schools are age-appropriate. The judge’s opinion says school library collections are already curated by local officials for age-appropriate reading. Novack says if a book depicts sex, the state could remove it without considering its literary value, which Novack says would deny students necessary information about the wider world.
Attorney General Brenna Bird says she will keep on fighting to uphold the law that she says protects schoolchildren and parental rights.
( Lucia Cheng, Iowa Public Radio contributed to this story.)
