Booksology Below you can find more information about the ACLU lawsuit over the book ban at Dodea schools starting this summer.
For years, it is clear that one of the most important ways of book censorship throughout this era is the legal system. The outcome of the ongoing lawsuit is a mixed bag. Iowa’s “gay” bill shows that it is blocked and considered unconstitutional, including the removal of books from schools where so-called “sexuality” is present. The Fifth Circuit court has seen library users say they don’t have the first amendment to sue libraries to remove books for any reason in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Librarian Brookie Parks successfully settled her previous lawsuit against the public library employer, where she was fired for speaking out against censorship. Similarly, Suzette Baker of Lano County did.
Tracking the number of lawsuits relating to library censorship now is almost impossible task, as there is so much to do. Among them, Tennessee and South Carolina suits ban public school libraries and public libraries, respectively. Litigation over the use of Booklooks/RatedBooks to select school library materials at schools in the St. Francis area of Minnesota (remember that states where they have anti-book ban laws). And the lawsuit over the Idaho bill calling for public libraries requires parents to complain about financial penalties or move books facing financial penalties.
These don’t even touch on dozens of more, nor do they cover two federal cases that have occurred regarding the demolition of the institute for museums and library services (you can read the timeline of this ongoing situation, including all the court cases here).
Another ongoing lawsuit is one that has attracted less attention than several others thanks to censorship issues taking place outside of “typical” public libraries and school settings. One of the current federal administration’s first ban directives was issued through the Department of Defense Educational Activities School, which falls under the Department of Defense Directive. This creates a direct policy for federal demand than the average public school or library. For example, IML is determined at the national and local level, and therefore does not set policies or procedures for national public libraries. The same applies to the Ministry of Education and public schools. There are far more hurdles to jump from the top down than the Department of Defense Educational Activities School.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the administration over a request to ban publications on those schools.
Samula France, the ACLU’s first revised communications strategist, explains the background, including the current book Banning Directive, where the book is targeted, and why the ACLU pursued the lawsuit and pursued the current situation of the case.
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Something is happening in certain public schools, from Kentucky to Japan. Books have been taken from the shelf, posters of historical figures like Frida Kahlo have been removed from the wall, and the Black History Month celebration has been cancelled.
That’s all because military-run schools at bases around the world implement new policies that prohibit race and gender-related books, classroom discussions, events, and extracurricular activities.
So the ACLU took them to court.
What is Dodea? Why do they ban books?
The US Department of Defense operates public schools at military bases around the world for the children of active and civilian service members. The institutions that run these schools are known as the Department of Defense Educational Activities (Dodare) and run like other public school districts. Therefore, it is operated by the federal government and therefore is under direct control of the Secretary of Defense and Commander, not the local school board. Dodea serves more than 67,000 students from kindergarten to high school in 11 countries, seven states, Guam and Puerto Rico.
When comparing Dodea with more traditional school districts in the United States, it becomes one of the most diverse and highest achievements in the country.
However, in January 2025, President Donald Trump signed three executive orders that affect Dodea and how it works.
- entitled Executive Order (EO) 14168, “Protecting women from gender ideological extremism and restoring biological truths to the federal government.”
- Title: EO 14185 “Restoring America’s Combat Power.” and
- EO 14190 “The End of Radical Indoctrination in K-12 School Education”
These executive orders prohibit the use of federal funds, among other things, on those that could promote “gender ideology” or “schizophrenia.” EO 14185 directs the military to “stop some “non-American, divisive, discriminatory, radical, extremist, irrational theories” in “promoting, progressing, or otherwise.”
In President Trump’s words, these concepts are “oriented.”
(w)e is away from our schools and our military, it’s already out of our society, it’s out of our society, we don’t want it. The mind is trouble, the heart is bad, it is gone. That was gone. And we felt so good about it, right? Don’t you feel good?
What exactly are they doing?
In February, Dodea began implementing these new executive orders. In several emails to teachers and staff, the administrator asked, “We will confirm that books related to gender ideology or discriminatory equity may be removed from the Student Section.” Parents were told that “books potentially related to topics of gender ideology or discriminatory equity” would be moved to a private section away from students for expert review. Teachers were asked to remove these books from the classroom, and Dodea told news outlets that she was taking steps to end “radical indoctrination” at school.
Keyword searches were used to identify material for potential violations of executive orders prohibiting so-called “gender ideology” and “splitting concepts.” That review is currently underway at Dodea’s headquarters, and their decisions could affect students in schools from Kentucky to Japan. In Dodare’s own words, this all happened in response to President Trump’s executive order and guidance from the Secretary of Defense. The impact is already felt.
Librarians, a training in German schools, were instructed to scan the book by writing potential references to gender identity. One book, Both now He was flagged as a violation by Payton Thomas because he “refers to transgender people.”
A Kentucky news outlet reported that Fort Campbell librarians felt it needed to remove “books that mention slavery, civil rights movements, or treatment of Native Americans.” At that same school, internal memos expressly banned “monthly cultural observance.” The result was a message board saying that black history was deleted and similar plans for Asian Americans and Pacific Islands Heritage Month. In a January official DOD width memo entitled “Dead at Dead at Dead,” the agency instructed all schools to cancel “special activities and non-instruction events” related to Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Pride Month and others.
Several books and resources have been removed from the curriculum. This includes two AP psychology book chapters that discussed human sexuality, as well as a historically accurate and grade biographies of Robert Cashier, a civil war veteran born, who joined the army and fought bravely as a Union male.
This censorship also extended to sex education. Several chapters have been banned from the Dodea Sex Ed textbook, including:
- “Infectious diseases: Sexually transmitted diseases”;
- “Unnecessary Sexual Activities: Sexual Harassment”;
- “The human reproductive system, menstrual cycle, and fetal development.”
- “Abuse and Neglect”; and
- “Adolescents and adolescents”
The agent did not turn the stones over. Even the school yearbooks were involved. “Visual depictions, written content, or editorial choices” may indicate that support for “social transition” is permitted.
All of this violates the First Amendment.
Students at Dodea schools, like other students in American public schools, are entitled to receive information about the world around them. They have the right to read books about their own experiences and the experiences of people who are different from them, and they have the right to shape their education not by animus or politics but by pedagogical expertise, curiosity, and the rigour of education.
Which books were banned?
According to a new submission from Dodea, 555 books and 41 curriculum materials are banned at bases around the world while being reviewed. Dodea doesn’t want to say what those books are, but he compiled a list of several titles that appear to be included, and the court ordered the full list by mid-June.
Reports from news outlets, plaintiffs, Dodea itself, and other sources say that these 233 books were said to have been quarantined or banned at Dodea’s schools. This is the choice:
- Flickle Face Strawberry Julianne Moore
- To kill a mockingbird By Harper Lee
- Julian is a mermaid By Jessica Love
- Four entries of Heart Stopper Series by Alice Osseman
- I kissed Shallaweera By Casey McQuiston
- Color purple By Alice Walker
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Fire By Michelle Alexander
- Kit Runner By Khaled Hosseini
- Nickel boy Colson Whitehead (and Boys Ford The School: Forensics, Survivors and Painful Past (Elizabeth A. Murray, about the school on which this novel is based).
Despite pleas from parents, students and supporters, Dodea has refused to see which 555 books are in the chopping blocks system-wide. But based on what we know, like other school districts, most of the books that are allegedly banned within Dodea look like women, LGBTQ people, and people of color.
What is going on about that?
The American Civil Liberties Union, along with the ACLU in Kentucky and the ACLU in Virginia, filed a lawsuit against Dodea in March on behalf of six families with children at Dodea’s schools. These families have children from kindergarten to 11th Grade at schools around the world.
The lawsuit alleges that these removals violate the First Amendment. As explained in the first complaint, removal and prohibition is not based on “rational, age-appropriate, evidence-based concerns,” but on the politics and the president’s “anti-sponsority” agenda. This limits the student’s ability to think critically and learn about himself and his neighbors. Also, in the case of sexual ingredients, do not cause any harm.
On Tuesday, June 3, 2025, the ACLU argued that the court should grant an immediate preliminary injunction in the Eastern District of Virginia – curriculum restoration, books returned to shelves, preventing Dodea from continuing the executive order that caused all this. The court can issue a decision at any time, and at the hearing the court ordered Dodea to share more details about the book that was deleted within seven days, but the fight in court alone cannot win. Student organizers at Dodea’s schools have led strikes in protest against these new policies, often putting disciplinary action at risk since January. In Korea, 40 students participated in such strikes. This included students dressed up the flag folding and Statue of Liberty. And military parents, like those filing the lawsuit, talk about how inconsistent this moment of censorship is with their work. “If our own rights and children’s rights are at risk, we are responsible for speaking up.”
