Thirteen popular books have been banned from all Utah public schools, the first round of bans expected under a new law that bans books that at least three of the state’s 41 school boards say contain pornographic or offensive material.
By allowing only a few districts to make statewide decisions, the law is one of the most lenient for banning books in the United States, according to PEN America, a free speech organization that tracks book bans across the U.S.
The state school board has its first list of banned books this month, including a popular young adult novel series by author Sarah J. Maas called “A Court of Thorns and Roses” and books by Judy Blume and Margaret Atwood. The state’s two largest school districts, located in conservative parts of the state, led the charge to ban the books. Davis School District voted to ban all 13 books on the list, and Alpine School District banned seven, including Maas’s series.
The books are still available in public libraries.
Utah’s actions come amid a renewed pressure in recent years to ban more books by conservatives across the country, despite concerns from free speech advocates and some educators and parents.
“The state no-read list will impose a dystopian censorship regime on public schools and, in many cases, will directly conflict with local preferences,” said Kasey Meehan, Freedom to Read program director at PEN America.
“It is anti-democratic to allow just a handful of counties to make decisions for the entire state, and we are concerned that implementing this law will result in less diverse library shelves for all Utahns,” Meehan said.
At least three other states — Tennessee, Idaho and South Carolina — plan to let state governments get involved in banning books, rather than leaving the issue up to local communities, PEN America reported.
Under Tennessee law, a complaint from one person to a school board can be taken to a textbook commission. The commission can then ban the book from school libraries throughout the state if the commission finds the book to be inappropriate for the age and developmental level of the students.
Idaho law requires school and public libraries to move material deemed “harmful to minors” to an adult section or risk lawsuits. The new law uses Idaho’s current definition of “obscene material,” which includes any act of homosexuality.
Utah’s law went into effect July 1 and required school districts to report to the Utah Board of Education which books they had banned from their school libraries that would meet the criteria set forth in the new law. More books are likely to follow, Meehan said.
Public school libraries must get rid of the books and they cannot be sold or distributed, the state said.
“You really should throw books away,” Meehan said. “I just think that’s an alarming picture of where we are.”
Only a member of the Utah Board of Education can appeal, by asking the full board to hold a hearing within 30 days of a book being placed on the ban list to vote on whether to lift the ban. So far, no appeals have been filed, said Sharon Turner, a Utah Board of Education spokesperson.
Natalie Cline, who serves on the Utah State Board of Education, welcomed the move and said the list of banned books falls far short. Cline is an outgoing board member who lost this year’s Republican primary after questioning the gender of a high school basketball player.
“Just removing those 13 books, when there are hundreds of others that are just as explicit and also need to go, is problematic,” said Cline, who said tests for literary merit in books are “absurd” and “subjective.”
Cline added that all sexually explicit content, including content in science or medical classes that the new law allows, should be banned in K-12 schools, citing the state’s penal code.
All over the country, The number of book challenges and bans has increased dramatically to the highest level in decades. Public and school libraries are being inundated with complaints from community members and conservative organizations like Moms for Liberty. Increasingly, lawmakers are considering new penalties — crippling lawsuits, hefty fines and even jail time — for distributing books that some consider inappropriate.
The trend comes as officials struggle to define terms like “obscene” and “harmful.” Many of the conflicts involve materials with racial and/or LGBTQ+ themes, such as Toni Morrison’s novel “The Bluest Eye” and Maia Kobabe’s memoir “Gender Queer.” And while no librarian or teacher has yet been locked up, the threat alone has led to more self-censorship. This year, lawmakers in more than 15 states have introduced bills that would impose harsh penalties on libraries or librarians.
Some Republicans are pushing for punishments and restrictions that would apply nationwide. Referring to “pornography” in the foreword to Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for a possible second Donald Trump administration, the right-wing group’s president, Kevin Roberts, wrote that “the people who produce and distribute it should be jailed. The teachers and public librarians who distribute it should be classified as registered sex offenders.”
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Hanson reported from Helena, Montana, and Bedayn from Denver.
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Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.