Iowa’s education representatives say they are relieved that, at least for now, teachers and librarians don’t have to fear being fired under state law if they make a wrong decision about which books to keep on school shelves.

A judge last week placed a preliminary injunction against part of Senate File 496. The law, which the Iowa Legislature passed in 2023, prohibits school libraries from providing books deemed not age appropriate and primarily focuses on any book that includes “sex acts.”

Christy Hickman, general counsel for the Iowa State Education Association and representing ISEA as a plaintiff, said she was “incredibly relieved for our members.” Those members include educators at all levels. Teachers now “wouldn’t have to be concerned about their employment or their licensure being in jeopardy in the event they didn’t interpret this incredibly vague law incorrectly,” she said.

Some school districts, however, won’t be quick to change internal guidance on the law. “Given the number of injunctions and appeals, Southeast Polk is not taking any additional action with books at this time,” Jeannie Christenson, community relations coordinator at Southeast Polk Community School District, said. “We have not yet returned any of the removed titles to shelves, and we will continue to monitor legal developments.”

Federal District Judge Stephen Locher, in the Southern District of Iowa, had placed an injunction on SF 496 before, but the State of Iowa appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit. The appeals court ruled Locher had not performed the correct “analysis” on the case and sent it back to Locher’s court. This time, Locher’s analysis weighed the unconstitutional applications of the law against the constitutional ones, which in his ruling he admitted is “hard to do” for this case.

Still, Locher ruled “the law has been unconstitutionally applied in dozens (if not hundreds) of situations and constitutionally applied in one.”

Locher wrote in his ruling that the law “places the burden on local school districts and school officials to determine whether a book is permitted” and that “this is the whole point of the law’s penalty provisions: local officials and districts are subject to punishment if they get it wrong.”

The law put educators in a “precarious state … by passing this bill and not giving them a lot of direction about how to carry it out,” Hickman said. “I don’t even know where I would start to explain the heaviness of that.”

A student plaintiff in the lawsuit calls the injunction a “huge step in the right direction.” Grace Van Gundy, a senior at Urbandale High School, and the only student in the lawsuit, said she wants her fellow students “to feel reassured about the injunction and remember that there are still government officials looking out for our best interests–even if it doesn’t always feel like it.”

She said the decision “solidifies the importance of education and that proves we will not tolerate attempts at censorship.”

Despite the ruling, Van Gundy believes that “there is still work to do. The fight is not over.”

Locher’s preliminary injunction could once again be appealed to the Eighth Circuit based on the new analysis of the law. Hickman said she expects the state will appeal.

If that’s the case, she said the appeals court will have “a very, very extensive decision with analysis of multiple different (legal) tests, so the Eighth Circuit will have a very fair record to make a final determination,” Hickman said.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird in a statement alluded to the state taking this case further and wrote in part, “This common sense law makes certain that the books kids have access to in school classrooms and libraries are age-appropriate. I’m going to keep on fighting to uphold our law that protects schoolchildren and parental rights.”

SF 496 also prohibits the instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity in K-6 curriculum. Iowa Safe Schools has filed a lawsuit against that part of the law. Locher is expected to also rule on that case.