Utah Book Ban Law Spurs Free Speech Suit From Authors, Students

Jan. 6, 2026, 11:04 PM UTC

A group of award-winning authors and Utah high school students mounted a First Amendment challenge to portions of a state law banning books in public schools containing sexual material, which they say function as a “modern-day book burning.”

The law requires local education agencies to remove books from school libraries that contain “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,” according to a complaint filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the District of Utah.

A spokesperson for Washington School District ...

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