Overview
- The Eighth Circuit, which vacated preliminary injunctions Monday, cleared the state to enforce core parts of Senate File 496 during ongoing lawsuits.
- Under the law, schools must remove materials that depict sex acts, restrict classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation through sixth grade, and notify parents if a student asks to use a different name or pronouns.
- The panel narrowed enforcement of the book rule to titles that explicitly depict sex acts as defined in Iowa statute, rejecting a broader reading the district court had inferred from two isolated words.
- The decision vacated earlier orders by U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher and allows the state to enforce the parental-notification requirement and the limits on K–6 instruction.
- State officials praised the ruling while publishers and LGBTQ advocates said they will press on, leaving districts to recheck library shelves, adjust lesson plans, and refine parent-notice procedures as the cases return to the trial court.