Books banned under Utah's removal law will stay off Canyons School District shelves after a federal judge ruled the lawsuit challenging the law can proceed.

U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby rejected the state's bid to dismiss the case Tuesday, Sept. 15, finding that the authors and students who filed it have legal standing. The ruling does not decide whether the law violates the First Amendment. It settles only whether the plaintiffs can bring the challenge at all.

The lawsuit, filed Jan. 6, was brought by two Utah public high school students along with the estates of Kurt Vonnegut and Maya Angelou, and authors Elana K. Arnold, Ellen Hopkins and Amy Reed. Each has had at least one book removed from a Utah school district under the state's "sensitive materials" law, ABC4 Utah reported.

How the law works

The Utah Legislature passed the book removal law in 2022, banning material deemed "pornographic or indecent" from schools. A 2024 amendment added a process for anyone to challenge instructional material. If three public school districts remove a title, it is banned statewide and must come off shelves in all 42 Utah public school districts, including Canyons.

As of Feb. 5, at least 22 books had been banned statewide. That number has since grown. Among the banned titles are Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five," Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" and Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner," according to court filings.

What the judge said

The plaintiffs allege the law prevents their books from reaching young adult readers and harms them financially and reputationally. Judge Shelby found those claims sufficient to clear the standing bar.

"If that were the test, every losing claim would be dismissed for want of standing," Shelby wrote in his order, rejecting the argument that authors must first prove a constitutional violation to bring their case.

Utah had argued the law does not target specific books or authors, does not stop minors from reading banned material outside school, and does not prohibit booksellers from selling the titles. The Utah Attorney General's Office declined to comment on the pending litigation, Courthouse News reported.

Shelby also dismissed most claims against individual school board members and district officials named in the suit. Those claims duplicated ones already brought against the districts themselves, according to Utah Politics.

What it means for Canyons families

Canyons is not a defendant. But because the statewide ban applies to every public school district, the removed titles are off Canyons library shelves by law. The lawsuit's outcome could determine whether those books return.

David Given, a partner at Counsel LLP in San Francisco who represents the Vonnegut and Angelou estates, said in a statement to Courthouse News that the legacies "are grateful for the court's clear-eyed decision."

No date has been announced for the next phase of the case, which will address whether the law violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments.