PRH Files Lawsuit Against Iowa
Penguin Random House (PRH) and the Iowa State Education Association have filed a lawsuit against the state of Iowa and the Iowa State Education Association (ISEA). The suit names other plaintiffs including authors Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, Malinda Lo, and Jodi Picoult, whose books have been banned or removed in Iowa; two middle school teachers; one high school student; and one school librarian.
The lawsuit challenges Iowa Senate File 496 (SF 496), which bans books containing any descriptions or depictions of sex from public school and classroom libraries for students through 12th grade, as well as books relating in any way to sexual orientation or gender identity for students through sixth grade. SF 496 was enacted in May 2023, and carries severe penalties for teachers and librarians who make such books available to their students, effective January 1, 2024. School districts are responsible for determining which books violate the new law, which critics describe as “vague, overbroad, and discriminatory.”
The lawsuit seeks a court order blocking enforcement of the book bans on the grounds that they are unconstitutional. According to a PRH press release:
These restrictions violate the First Amendment free speech and the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution.
The First Amendment guarantees the right to read and to be read, to exchange ideas and viewpoints without unreasonable government interference. The new Iowa state law flouts this core principle of the Constitution with sweeping legislation that eliminates student access to books with ideas and perspectives disliked by state authorities. The lawsuit further contends that Iowa’s stated rationale for SF 496—protecting children from pornography—is a pretext and contrary to the definition of obscenity as determined by the U.S. Supreme Court in Miller vs. California (1973).
Anke Steinecke, EVP, chief legal officer and general counsel for PRH, said, “This country has long upheld the principle that authors have the right to communicate their stories and ideas to the public, including students, and that students have a right to explore, choose, and learn from those books without discriminatory interference from the government.” PRH CEO Nihar Malaviya added, “We know that not every book we publish will be for every reader, but we must protect the right for all Americans, including students, parents, caregivers, teachers, and librarians, to have equitable access to books and to continue to decide what they read.”
Earlier this year, PRH joined PEN America in a lawsuit challenging similar book bans in Escambia County School District in Florida.
While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT to continue quality coverage of the science fiction and fantasy field.
©Locus Magazine. Copyrighted material may not be republished without permission of LSFF.
