Drummond asks court to protect children from harmful content in public school libraries

OKLAHOMA CITY (July 2, 2025) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond has filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit supporting Iowa in a challenge to its law that prohibits public school libraries from lining its shelves with books that describe sexual acts.

The brief, which was signed by a coalition of 21 state attorneys general, states that the First Amendment does not compel public school libraries to stock library shelves with graphic depictions of sexual acts that elementary students can access without their parents’ knowledge or consent.

“Iowa, and certainly any other state, has the right to ban books and materials in public school libraries that include descriptions of sexual acts,” Drummond said. “This material is wholly inappropriate for school-age children. Decisions about content should be left with the proper decision makers – the state and local officials who are accountable to the people they serve.”

In the brief, the coalition said the district court was wrong to issue a preliminary injunction and freeze Iowa’s law. When deciding what materials belong in public-school library collections, the government makes editorial decisions about age-appropriateness, educational value and what is worthy of expending taxpayer dollars. Those curation decisions are the government’s editorial speech. Because the Free Speech Clause has no application when the government is the one speaking, Iowa’s law does not violate the First Amendment.

The district court’s refusal to recognize that public library curation decisions are government speech subverts the democratic process and will have significant negative consequences if affirmed. Rather than having democratically accountable officials decide the content of public school libraries, unelected federal courts will become the decisionmakers forced to referee countless disputes between students, parents and publishers over what books belong in a public school library’s collection.

In addition to Drummond, the brief was signed by the attorneys general of Arkansas, Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.

Read the brief.

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