Another red state just tried to protect its children from obscene content—and once again, a Biden-appointed judge jumped in to stop it. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher struck down a key part of Iowa’s Senate File 496, which would have required schools to remove sexually explicit books from K-12 libraries. In other words, a federal judge just decided that local parents, school boards, and state lawmakers don’t get to decide what’s appropriate for children in their own communities. Washington does.
The law, signed by Republican Governor Kim Reynolds in 2023, made one simple demand: schools—public and private—should not be handing out books with graphic sex acts to minors. Most people would call that common sense. But not in Biden’s America, where anything labeled “education” is automatically shielded from accountability, no matter how inappropriate the content may be.
Judge Locher, appointed by Joe Biden, claimed the law violated the Constitution by making “categorical, content-based rules on books in school libraries.” He argued that it didn’t consider “a book’s literary, political, artistic, or scientific value” before banning it—because apparently, there’s now a debate about whether sexually explicit material aimed at children could be excused as “art.”
According to the ruling, “Senate File 496 makes no attempt to evaluate a book’s literary, political, artistic, or scientific value before requiring the book’s removal from a school library and thus comes nowhere close to applying the ‘obscenity’ standard that is typically used to determine the constitutionality of statewide book restrictions.” The judge concluded that some of the banned books were not technically pornographic or obscene. But nowhere did he address why schools were stocking them in the first place—or why parents shouldn’t be outraged.
Let’s cut through the legal smokescreen: this is about who gets to decide what kids are exposed to—parents or activists. Iowa tried to draw a line in the sand. They said, “Not in our schools.” And a Biden judge said, “Too bad.”
Parents have been sounding the alarm for years about inappropriate content in school libraries—books that aren’t just edgy or challenging, but filled with explicit sexual content, adult themes, and ideologically charged material about gender and sexuality. In response, Iowa’s lawmakers passed a law that said enough is enough. But in Biden’s America, laws passed by elected representatives can be swatted down by unelected judges without a second thought.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird nailed it when she responded to the decision: “As a mom, I know how important it is to keep schools a safe place for kids to learn and grow. Parents shouldn’t have to worry about what materials their kids have access to when they’re not around. 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.”
And that’s exactly the point—this isn’t just about books, it’s about parental rights. It’s about whether families still have a say in how their children are raised and educated, or whether federal judges and publishing houses like Penguin Random House (who, not coincidentally, challenged the law) get to dictate the cultural agenda.
This isn’t the first time a red state has tried to stand up for families and been slapped down by the courts. Other states have passed similar laws, only to see them tied up or gutted by legal challenges from left-wing groups determined to keep a grip on the public school narrative. It’s not about literature—it’s about indoctrination, and they know it.
These judges aren’t defending the Constitution—they’re defending the ideology that says kids belong to the state. They’re protecting publishers who push sexually explicit material on teenagers under the cover of “progress,” and they’re shutting down any effort by voters to reclaim control of their schools.
This is exactly why Trump’s judicial legacy matters—and why his return to the White House is essential. Americans need judges who understand the Constitution, yes—but also basic decency. And no, school libraries don’t need to be stocked with smut to meet some absurd standard of literary diversity.
Iowa tried to protect its kids. Biden’s judge tried to protect the agenda. The battle lines couldn’t be clearer.
