A lawsuit accusing Utah of violating the First Amendment was filed the day after the state’s list of banned books in public schools grew to 22 titles.
Two Utah high school students and several award-winning authors sued in federal court over the state’s “sensitive materials” law banning books.
Authors Elana K. Arnold and Ellen Hopkins are among the plaintiffs, and both have books on the statewide ban list. They’re joined by the estate of Kurt Vonnegut, represented by the late author's children. “Slaughterhouse-Five,” which has been called an American classic, was banned in Washington County schools. These authors have books that have been deemed “pornographic” or “indecent” by some Utah schools, under the definition in state law.
“Utah’s lawmakers’ determination to ban books like ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ denies innumerable young people in Utah the freedom to read, think, and grow; it is antithetical to what my father fought for during World War II and focused much of his literary legacy on addressing,” said Kurt Vonnegut’s daughter, Nanette Vonnegut, in a statement.
The two unnamed students say they wanted to check out specific books from their school libraries, but they had been removed. One said she “sought out these books because they offer realistic portrayals of teenagers navigating the transition to adulthood, dealing with complex issues like identity, relationships, and the challenges young women face.” The other said she was sexually assaulted and read books that talk about sexual assault to help her understand and recover from her trauma.
“The Student Plaintiffs are among the thousands of young Utahns across the state who, due to the Book Removal Law, are denied access to books that could help them understand their own experiences and the experiences of those around them,” the complaint reads.
The students’ parents are part of the suit and support their children’s access to the reading material.
Books deemed pornographic or indecent in Utah are known as “objective sensitive materials.” The sensitive materials law, passed in 2022, was amended in 2024 to create a statewide ban if three school districts reported a book for being pornographic or indecent. Under state law, that means it had a description or depiction of one of the following: “human genitals in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal; acts of masturbation, sexual intercourse, or sodomy; or fondling or other erotic touching of human genitals or pubic region.”
Under the law, attorneys for the ACLU of Utah and two law firms allege, critically-acclaimed books have been removed “not because they lack literary merit, but because they acknowledge that topics like human sexuality and sexual assault exist as part of the broader human experience they explore.”
They say schools are required to remove a book if it “contains even a single description or depiction of sex, no matter how fleeting, no matter its context, and no matter its literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”
Additionally, the complaint says the law does not differentiate between what is appropriate for a kindergartener and for a 17-year-old in high school. It’s a single standard for all.
“State law permits sixteen-year-olds to consent to certain sexual activity. Yet the same students whom Utah trusts to make intimate, real-world decisions about their bodies are, under the Book Removal Law, barred from accessing out books that contain a mere single passage describing the very conduct in which is lawful for them to engage,” the complaint reads.
The attorneys argue that the Miller Test, the U.S. Supreme Court’s test for determining whether something is obscene, when applied to minors, does require reviewing materials as a whole and considering the age of the reader
The complaint alleges the state’s laws are “overbroad, content-based censorship that violate the First Amendment by limiting the ideas, information, and lived experiences accessible in Utah's school libraries based on the personal preferences of the Legislature.”
Before these laws were passed, the attorneys argued pornography was already banned in schools and that librarians were curating collections for age-appropriateness.
The complaint says students have a right to learn and access information, a right the government can only narrowly restrict, and authors have a right to communicate their ideas to students without undue government interference. Additionally, it’s alleged that the statewide ban list stigmatizes the authors and readers of those books.
“The right to read and the right to free speech are inseparable. The First Amendment protects our freedom to read, learn, and share ideas free from unconstitutional censorship,” Thomas Ford, attorney at the ACLU of Utah, said in a statement. “This law censors constitutionally protected books, silences authors, and denies students access to ideas, in violation of the First Amendment rights of students and authors alike, and must be struck down.”
A statement from one of the anonymous youth plaintiffs added that, “For many Utah students, the first place we recognize our own lives and identities is in a library book. When those books disappear, students notice immediately. It sends a clear message about whose stories matter and whose do not."
Utah Attorney General Derek Brown, the Utah State Board of Education and several school districts are named as defendants.
This lawsuit likely isn’t a surprise to the state. A June 2022 memo from the Utah Attorney General’s Office said that not considering the value of books as a whole, meaning banning them for a single depiction of sex, “may present conflict with federal law.”
The plaintiffs want the court to enjoin the state law and return books that were banned to school library shelves.
