The legal back-and-forth over Iowa Senate File 496 continues with attorneys representing the state defendants filing a motion challenging the March 25 decision by U.S. District Court judge Stephen Locher of the Southern District of Iowa that reinstated a preliminary injunction against book restrictions in Iowa. The filing asks that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit review Locher’s most recent decision.

Iowa Senate File 496 is a 2023 state law that has resulted in the removal of hundreds of books from Iowa public school libraries. In his March ruling, Locher concluded that the law “is likely facially unconstitutional under the First Amendment,” and enjoined the state from enforcing the law’s provisions to remove library books and penalize educators.

Following passage of the law, Penguin Random House filed a lawsuit in November 2023 challenging the legislation and was later joined in the case by the other Big Five publishers, the Authors Guild, and the Iowa State Education Association, alongside four authors, two Iowa educators, a student, and a parent.

Locher issued his first injunction against SF 496 in December 2023, but that ruling was vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in August 2024. The Eighth Circuit remanded the case back to Locher, with instructions to test the law according to First Amendment principles addressed in the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Moody v. NetChoice, LLC. Plaintiffs filed a new complaint in September 2024, which led to his March ruling in favor of the publishers and other plaintiffs.