Appeals Court Allows Iowa to Restrict Sexual, Gender-Related Content in Schools

Iowa can enforce key parts of its education law, including restrictions on school library books, after a federal appeals court lifted lower court blocks on the policy on April 6.

In one of its rulings, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit allowed the state to go forward with enforcing its restrictions on library books with sexually explicit content. Another ruling addressed limits on gender identity instruction in early grades and a requirement that parents be notified if their child requests an “accommodation that is intended to affirm the student’s gender identity.” Both decisions were made by a 3–0 vote.

Judge Ralph Erickson wrote in the court’s opinion that the First Amendment “does not guarantee students the right to access books of their choosing at taxpayer expense.”

In the other ruling, Erickson said the court disagreed with the lower court’s assessment that the restrictions on gender identity and sexual orientation instruction through grade six were likely unconstitutional. He also disputed the idea that the notification requirement was “impermissibly vague.”

The ruling allows the law to take effect while the case continues in lower courts, where the legal challenges over its constitutionality remain unresolved.

“Thrilled to play a role defending Iowa’s important laws protecting children and parental rights,” Iowa Solicitor General Eric Wessan said on X in response to the decision. “Can Iowa protect children & parental rights by mandating teachers notify parents about social transitions? Can Iowa prohibit teaching about sexuality/gender identify in elementary schools? Judge Erickson answers, ‘Yes.’”

Two educators and a nonprofit group challenged the law as unconstitutionally broad.

PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for free speech, said in a legal brief that the Iowa law “is part of a troubling national trend of educational censorship and has already caused substantial harm.”

PEN America stated its Index of School Book Bans from 2021 to 2024 recorded nearly 16,000 instances of book restrictions across the U.S. that involved 415 public school districts.

“Legislation requiring book bans, such as Iowa’s statewide the Library Restriction Program, undermines public education systems in violation of the First Amendment by denying students’ rights to receive information, infringing on authors’ free speech rights, and misapplying the obscenity doctrine,” PEN America wrote.

The state law was signed in May 2023 and took effect in July 2023. The law requires schools to remove materials containing depictions of sex acts, restricting certain books in K-12 libraries.

In the summer and fall of 2023, school districts began removing books, according to ACLU Iowa.

“Ultimately, thousands of books are removed from school library and classroom shelves, including many classics like ‘1984,’ ‘A Catcher in the Rye,’ and ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’” ACLU Iowa stated on its website.

In December 2023, the law was temporarily blocked by a lower federal court in Des Moines, Iowa. In January 2024, the state of Iowa appealed the lower court’s ruling and in August 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated the injunction.