ArentFox Schiff Secures Renewed Preliminary Injunction in Iowa Book Banning Case

On March 25, ArentFox Schiff obtained a renewed preliminary injunction in federal court in Iowa preventing the enforcement of an Iowa law providing for the removal of books from school and classroom libraries.

The law bans school library books that contain a description of a sex act without consideration of the value of the book as a whole.  Hundreds of award-winning books had been removed under this law.

We previously obtained a preliminary injunction preventing enforcement of the law.  On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court’s rejection of the government speech doctrine but remanded the case for reconsideration under the First Amendment overbreadth test set forth in the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Moody v. NetChoice. 

On remand, the court agreed with our arguments and again enjoined the law on the grounds that it is overbroad in violation of the First Amendment.

Our clients include Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, MacMillan, Simon & Schuster, four award-winning authors (Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, Malinda Lo, and Jodi Picoult), the Authors Guild, the Iowa State Education Association, a teacher, a librarian, and a high school student.

The AFS team includes Frederick J. Sperling, Adam Diederich, Kirstie Brenson, and Devin Ross.

More details on the litigation can be found here.

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