Book banning in Iowa

Yahoo -  A federal appeals court decision on Monday cleared the way for enforcement of a state law that bans Iowa’s public schools from offering certain books and forms of instruction related to gender and sexual orientation.

Senate File 496, which was signed into law in 2023, included several provisions related to public schools, gender identity and sexuality. In two separate lawsuits, the American Civil Liberties Union, an LGBTQ advocacy groups and a coalition of publishers took the state to court over the issue, arguing that some elements of the law violated individuals’ constitutional rights.

In 2025, a federal judge imposed a set of parallel, temporary injunctions that effectively blocked enforcement of those provisions while the two cases are being litigated.

In two separate decisions issued Monday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated those injunctions and remanded both cases back to district court where the underlying challenges as to the law’s legality can proceed toward trial.

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