In 2024, the Idaho Legislature passed HB 710. In 2025, a suit was brought which seeks to demonstrate how problematic the law is on several levels.
Two students also joined in the lawsuit, including a 17-year-old from Lewiston who noted that even though he is taking college-level courses through his school’s dual-credit program, he is restricted from accessing books that he feels he needs to foster his learning. An 18-year-old student from Meridian said in the lawsuit that even though she is now old enough to check out the restricted books from her school library, it’s unclear how she can gain that access.
As reported in January (’26), a review by the Ninth Circuit viewed the law as overly broad and sent the case back “instructing a lower court to reconsider blocking at least a portion of the law”.
What books has Idaho banned?
Here’s a sampling on bookshop.org as assembled by Oldspeak (Garden City, Idaho).
Idaho author Khaliela Wright has assembled a list of over 80 banned books.
What’s in recent news?
On the heels of Utah’s 2024 HB 29: “On Friday, June 5, the state added its 35th book to the list of books that must be removed from every public school in the state: Lucky by Alice Sebold.”
In Tennessee, at a university, a textbook on human sexuality designed to educate future health care professionals, which passed review, was recently banned due to a student’s complaint that it was pornographic.
Take a moment and read this “deep [dive] into how library card policies vary nationwide and how those policies not only impact user experiences–especially for young people–but have become a means of imposing censorship”.
A quick glance at this Books Unbanned report (a program Brooklyn Public Library launched to aid teens in areas where book access is being repressed), shows Idaho as leading in “number of cardholders per 100k people in each state”. The report is of teen testimonials, “in their own words,” as to how this program affected them.
PEN found 3,743 unique titles banned in US public schools in 2024-2025, 29% of which were nonfiction titles. People provides a list of 29 banned books “on Art, Insects, Amelia Earhart and More”. (Salon opens this article speculating searches on “justice” and “pride” make them easy to spot.)
What can I do about it?
Once again The Cabin and Rediscovered Books are sponsoring The Read Freely Project “to highlight and distribute recent books that are diverse, well-written, and yet vulnerable to censorship in the current social climate”.
It’s just starting up, with a Kick Off on Tuesday 23 June and more details to follow. Connect and help counter the waves by taking action.
