Vonnegut heirs can proceed with challenge to Utah book removal law

A federal judge in Salt Lake City ruled Tuesday that the heirs of Kurt Vonnegut, along with the estate of Maya Angelou and several other authors, can proceed with their First Amendment lawsuit against a Utah law that strips schools of books containing any depiction of sex, regardless of context or literary merit.

U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby rejected Utah's argument that the authors lacked standing because they had not suffered a constitutional injury, noting that whether the harm rises to that level is a question for the merits, not the threshold question of whether they can sue at all.

The law, passed in 2022 and amended in 2024, allows any student, parent or employee to trigger a review, and lets three local districts banning a book turn that into a statewide ban. ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ and ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ are both already off shelves under it, joining a list of frequently challenged titles going back decades.

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