Iowa GOP using 'fear' to 'unleash a frenzy of book-banning across the state': analysis

Republican legislators in Iowa passed intentionally vague laws that have spurred the removal of books from school libraries and classrooms.

Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law in May a requirement for schools to remove books that depict a "sex act," a vaguely worded statutory term that that Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent says "has now helped unleash a frenzy of book-banning across the state."

"Their vagueness is the point," Sargent writes. "When GOP-controlled state legislatures escalated the passage of laws in 2022 and 2023 restricting school materials addressing sex, gender and race, critics warned that their hazy drafting would prod educators to err on the side of censorship. Uncertain whether books or classroom discussions might run afoul of their state’s law, education officials might decide nixing them would be the 'safer' option."

"What’s happening in Iowa right now thoroughly vindicates those fears," Sargent adds.

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The Iowa City Community School District issued a list of 68 books removed from the shelves to comply with the law, including The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood and “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, school districts in other parts of the state have removed such books as “1984” by George Orwell and “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut.

“Many literary classics have sex in them,” said Jonathan Friedman, director of free expression and education programs at PEN America. “But now the term ‘sex act’ is turning into a blunt instrument to remove scores of books that have all kinds of literary merit and cultural significance.”

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ICE agents in Minneapolis sparked outrage after detaining 2-year-old Chloe Renata Tipan Villacis and her father, Elvis Joel Tipan Echeverria, during a traffic stop, raising fresh concerns over the agency’s practice of targeting children. The arrest drew bystander protests, chemical irritants, and widespread criticism, even as DHS claimed the father committed felony reentry and that the child was safely cared for. A judge later ordered the child’s release, but immigration experts warned the case highlights a troubling pattern of children being used as leverage in aggressive ICE operations, fueling national condemnation of the agency’s tactics.

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ICE detains 2-year-old and father in Minneapolis, sparking outrage over child arrests ICE detains 2-year-old and father in Minneapolis, sparking outrage over child arrests

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Prince Harry on Friday rebuked President Donald Trump's comments dismissing NATO allies and spoke out about sacrifices among those who fought alongside the United States.

The Duke of Sussex served in the British Army for a decade and did two tours in Afghanistan, among many of the service members who answered the call to serve after NATO invoked Article 5 under the mutual defense agreement following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, NBC News reported.

“I served there. I made lifelong friends there. And I lost friends there. The United Kingdom alone had 457 service personnel killed,” he said. “Thousands of lives were changed forever. Mothers and fathers buried sons and daughters. Children were left without a parent. Families are left carrying the cost.”

“Those sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect, as we all remain united and loyal to the defense of diplomacy and peace,” the Duke of Sussex said.

In an interview Thursday with Fox News from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump questioned NATO allies' reliability, and claimed the U.S. "never needed them" and that allies sent troops to Afghanistan but "stayed a little back, a little off the front lines." Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also hit back at Trump's statement.

"The American officers who accompanied me then, told me that America would never forget the Polish heroes. Perhaps they will remind President Trump of that fact," Tusk wrote on X.

Several other European leaders have spoken out in response against Trump's comments, including UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer, who called the president's statements "insulting and frankly, appalling."

A writer at the conservative National Review warned Friday that a looming Supreme Court decision on Donald Trump’s tariff powers could trigger political chaos – and potentially turn MAGA world against the high court.

In a column titled “The Storm is Coming to Washington, D.C.,” staff writer Jeffrey Blehar zeroed in on the case challenging Trump’s tariff powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The upcoming ruling, Blehar told readers on Friday, will determine whether “the entire basis of his foreign and domestic economic policy – is constitutional or not.”

But no matter how Trump’s handpicked, ultra-conservative Supreme Court rules, “the walls of the American civic settlement will bend and shake,” Blehar wrote. And, he noted, the MAGA movement is watching.

“If the Supreme Court upholds the Trump administration’s wildly expansive interpretation of executive branch power, I foresee little but disaster: Bond markets will probably crater, and Trump will be emboldened to wield tariffs as a child wields crayons,” he warned, adding: “Further and greater executive overreaches seem sure to follow.”

A Supreme Court rejection of Trump’s position could be just as disastrous, the conservative writer warned. “Does anyone expect Donald Trump to meekly submit to having his entire political agenda declared unconstitutional? I expect a wholesale rhetorical war of the most destructive and toxic sort imaginable.”

That backlash, Blehar suggested, could spark fury from Trump’s own movement – with MAGA activists suddenly turning on “the one last truly conservative political institution in America.”

“It has long been the object of the left to destroy the credibility and prestige of the Court, over which they lost ideological control,” Blehar wrote. “Imagine a world where they are joined by the most voluble activists and grifters on the MAGA right.”

“Batten down the hatches, Washington,” he concluded. “The true storm is coming, and perhaps sooner than you think.”

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