The nation’s largest publisher and several bestselling authors, including novelists John Green and Jodi Picoult, are part of a lawsuit filed Thursday challenging Iowa’s new law that bans public school libraries and classrooms from having practically any book that depicts sexual activity.
The lawsuit is the second in the past week to challenge the law, which bans books with sexual content all the way through 12th grade. An exception is allowed for religious texts.
Penguin Random House and four authors joined several teachers, a student and the Iowa State Education Association — the state’s teachers union representing 50,000 current and former public school educators — in filing the federal lawsuit.
Mainly because they’re going after schools, where it’s already been ruled that the right of free speech can be restricted (they can mandate clothing rules and punish kids for swearing as two examples), but I’m thinking this is a big step too far even for the courts. Unless the courts have been stacked, obviously.
I’m sure glad that hasn’t happened.
I remain hopeful. It’s all I can do.
The most amusing bit was where they said they could send a student home for wearing a top with spaghetti straps but they could not require the students to wear face masks because that would violate their rights. Fun times.