DoDEA Must Return Books to Shelves, Judge Rules

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In a victory for free speech, the Department of Defense (DOD) must stop censoring classroom and library materials pertaining to race and gender in DOD-run schools, a judge ruled today.

On behalf of six military families with students enrolled in Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) schools, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Kentucky, and the ACLU of Virginia filed a motion for preliminary injunction in May seeking to declare DoDEA’s enforcement of executive orders resulting in classroom censorship unconstitutional. DoDEA, whose students lead the United States in math and reading proficiency scores, operates 161 schools across 11 countries, seven states, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

“This is an important victory for students in DoDEA schools and anyone who values full libraries and vibrant classrooms,” said Emerson Sykes, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “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.”

The demand for an injunction was filed on behalf of 12 students and their families, ranging from pre-K to 11th grade, who attend DoDEA schools as children of active duty service members stationed in Virginia, Kentucky, Italy, and Japan. Since January, the plaintiffs’ schools have removed books, altered curricula, and canceled events that the Trump administration has accused of promoting “gender ideology” or “divisive equity ideology.” Censored items include materials about slavery, Native American history, women’s history, LGBTQ identities and history, and preventing sexual harassment and abuse, as well as portions of the Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology curriculum. The judge recently ordered the full list of 596 censored book titles to be filed publicly, and it can be viewed here.

“We are pleased to see the court agrees with our clients,” said Corey Shapiro, legal director for the ACLU of Kentucky. “Removing books from school libraries just because this administration doesn’t like the content is censorship, plain and simple. The materials removed are clearly age-appropriate and are only offensive to those who are afraid of a free-thinking population.”

The injunction is limited to the five schools attended by plaintiffs, but the message is clear: DoDEA’s censorship of books and curriculum materials is unconstitutional.

“By quarantining library books and whitewashing curricula in its civilian schools, the Department of Defense Education Activity violated students’ First Amendment rights,” said Matt Callahan, senior supervising attorney at the ACLU of Virginia. “Today’s ruling affirms that government can’t scrub references to race and gender from public school libraries and classrooms just because the Trump administration doesn’t like certain viewpoints on those topics.”

The ACLU, the ACLU of Kentucky, and the ACLU of Virginia filed suit in April, arguing that DoDEA enforcement of three executive orders signed by President Donald Trump in January 2025 led to widespread violations of students’ First Amendment rights. The suit, and the motion for preliminary injunction, were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.