Des Moines, Iowa, Nov 30, 2018 / 18:03 pm
Dozens of Iowa inmates have filed a lawsuit challenging a ban on pornography which has affected the state's prisons in recent weeks.
The law, which took effect Nov. 14, prohibits pornographic material and puts an end to "pornography reading rooms" in all of Iowa's nine state prisons.
A lawsuit filed by 58 inmates at Fort Dodge Correctional Institution claims the new state regulations are unconstitutional. The suit calls for an end to the ban and for $25,000 to be awarded to each inmate.
Thirty years ago, a similar ban was brought to court, where a federal judge found that the law's language on "explicit material" was unconstitutionally ambiguous. The law was then revised to more closely match the Supreme Court's ruling on obscenity laws.