Six military families at five Defense Department schools notched a victory this week in getting library books returned to their schools’ shelves.
A federal judge ordered Monday that the five schools for military children must return library books that had been removed for review to comply with President Donald Trump’s efforts to scrub diversity, equity and inclusion efforts from federal agencies.
U.S. District Court Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles granted a preliminary injunction, requiring officials with the Department of Defense Education Activity to “immediately restore the library books and curricular materials that have been removed since January 19, 2025 … to their preexisting shelves, classrooms, and units” at the five schools.
The preliminary injunction also prevents officials at those schools from taking any further actions to remove educational books and curricular content in implementing Trump’s executive orders while the court case continues.
The schools are: Crossroads Elementary School at Quantico Marine Corps Base, Virginia; Barsanti Elementary School at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Aviano Middle-High School, Italy; Sollars Elementary at Misawa Air Base, Japan; and Egdren Middle High School at Misawa Air Base.
The American Civil Liberties Union, along with 12 students and six parents, filed a lawsuit in April against the DODEA, the director of DODEA and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia.
The military families and the American Civil Liberties Union have asked for a permanent injunction to stop the activities.
The families have shown “a likelihood of success” in proving that DODEA’s actions violated the students’ rights under the First Amendment, Judge Giles stated in her memorandum opinion, issued with the temporary injunction.
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The ruling does not apply to all DODEA schools. The DOD runs 161 military schools in 11 foreign countries, seven states, Guam and Puerto Rico.
The judge denied the plaintiffs’ request to apply it to DODEA schools worldwide, citing in part a Supreme Court decision this year that determined “universal injunctions likely exceed the power Congress has granted to federal courts.”
But while the injunction is limited to those five schools named in the lawsuit, the message is clear, according to an announcement by the ACLU: “DoDEA’s censorship of books and curriculum materials is unconstitutional.”
Information was not available as of Wednesday about when DODEA will restore the books and the curricula at the five schools.
“As this matter is still currently the subject of active litigation, we are unable to comment,” DODEA spokeswoman Jessica Tackaberry said.
The ACLU is considering options for expanding the scope of the injunction, said Emerson J. Sykes, senior staff attorney at ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. The organization is also waiting for confirmation from DODEA that they are in compliance with the order, he said. Additional hearings in the case haven’t yet been scheduled.
596 titles censored
Among the censored items were materials about slavery, Native American history, women’s history, LGBTQ identities and history and preventing sexual harassment and abuse, as well as parts of the Advanced Placement Psychology curriculum, such as the “gender and sex” module. Actions regarding the AP curriculum could affect students’ performance on the AP exams, the students alleged, according to court documents.
One of the students involved in the lawsuit alleged she wasn’t allowed to present her research project on Maya Angelou after her school canceled Black History Month in compliance with DODEA’s guidance for implementing Trump’s executive orders.
In their complaint, the families alleged their students are “irreparably harmed” by the removal of race, gender and some health curricula because of Trump’s executive orders.
The evidence in the case “overwhelmingly suggests that the implementation of the book removal process has been inconsistent and opaque,” Judge Giles stated.
The judge ordered the full list of 596 titles being reviewed to be filed publicly. She noted that DODEA has maintained that the list of removed books is tentative and pending further review.
Among the titles up for review and made public in court documents are: “A History of Racism in America,” “A Queer History of the United States for Young People,” “Baby Drag Queen,” “Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir,” “Doing It Right: Making Smart, Safe, and Satisfying Choices About Sex,” “Gay and Lesbian History for Kids: The Centurv-long Struggle for LGBT rights, with 21 activities,” and hundreds of others.
The president’s executive order “sets forth generalized directives, without any particular focus on educational suitability,” and the book removals don’t focus on reasons that are deemed to be proper bases for book removals, Judge Giles said.
“This is an important victory for students in DoDEA schools and anyone who values full libraries and vibrant classrooms,” said the ACLU’s Sykes.
“The censorship taking place in DoDEA schools as a result of these executive orders was astonishing in its scope and scale, and we couldn’t be more pleased that the court has vindicated the First Amendment rights of the students this has impacted.”
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book “A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families.” She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
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