Appeals Court Delivers a Mixed Decision in Iowa Book Banning Case (publishersweekly.com)

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on August 9 vacated a December 2023 injunction blocking parts of Iowa’s controversial book banning law, SF 496. But the move could only be a temporary setback for freedom to read advocates, with court watchers noting that the decision also rejected the state’s core legal argument: that the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge SF 496 because the placement and removal of books from public school libraries and classrooms is government speech.

In a brief but thorough opinion, the appeals court held that the plaintiffs in the case—which include the Big Five publishers led by Penguin Random House as well as four bestselling authors—do have standing to sue, and swiftly dispatched with the state’s government speech argument.
more at: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/95704-appeals-court-delivers-a-mixed-decision-in-iowa-book-banning-case.html