A federal judge in Iowa blocked on Tuesday the portion of a Republican-backed law that banned libraries in public schools from stocking books that described sex acts.
The decision represented a victory for the publishers, authors and free speech advocates who challenged the measure on First Amendment grounds. But as conservative legislators across the country restrict books that they consider obscene, the ultimate fate of the Iowa law remains uncertain.
The same judge, Stephen Locher of the Federal District Court in Des Moines, first blocked the measure from taking effect in 2023. But an appeals court lifted his injunction, saying he had applied “a flawed analysis of the law.”
Iowa officials could also appeal Tuesday’s ruling, which granted another preliminary injunction. The case has not yet gone to trial on its merits.
In his ruling, Judge Locher, who was appointed by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., said the law “makes no attempt to evaluate a book’s literary, political, artistic or scientific value before requiring the book’s removal.”
“The result is the forced removal of books from school libraries that are not pornographic or obscene,” the judge added.
Attorney General Brenna Bird, a Republican whose office has defended the measure, said in a statement that she was “going to keep on fighting to uphold our law that protects schoolchildren and parental rights.”
“Parents shouldn’t have to worry about what materials their kids have access to when they’re not around,” Ms. Bird said.
Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, has previously said that “there should be no question that books containing sexually explicit content — as clearly defined in Iowa law — do not belong in a school library for children.”
The publisher Penguin Random House and the best-selling authors John Green and Jodi Picoult were among the plaintiffs who challenged Iowa’s law and said it violated their free speech rights. After the appellate court lifted the first injunction and returned the case to Judge Locher, the plaintiffs filed a motion seeking a new injunction.
The fight over the Iowa law is part of a broader national debate over how sexuality should be discussed in schools. Like conservatives elsewhere, Iowa Republicans have brushed off concerns about free expression and said the restrictions safeguard students from harmful materials.
Republicans nationally have emphasized their objections to a handful of titles, including some books that contain graphic descriptions of sex. But many other books, some of them highly regarded and not primarily about sex, have been taken off the shelves.
For instance, the school district in the city of Nevada, Iowa, removed dozens of titles, including “1984” by George Orwell, “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker, “Looking for Alaska” by Mr. Green and “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley.
