Defendants in Crookshanks v. Elizabeth (Colo.) School District, who had appealed to the 10th Circuit after a federal judge ordered the district to restore 19 censored books, motioned to dismiss their own appeal on January 20. A three-judge panel had been scheduled to hear oral argument on January 23.
“This appeal has been set for oral argument for more than two months, since November 3, 2025,” the court wrote. Although it granted the defendants' request, the court noted that it had “expended valuable time and resources studying the briefing and record” and that the decision to back out "is not well-taken."
ACLU of Colorado legal director Tim Macdonald shared in a statement that ESD spent “resources on a wasteful appeal and then sought retreat when it was time to face the Court. We hope that the district will learn from its mistakes, agree to stop banning books, and return to the important job of teaching kids to read.”
ESD, which includes four public schools serving about 2,600 students, put in place a “sensitive topic protocol” to control library collections and in August 2024 removed 19 books from school libraries, including work by Authors Guild members Alex Gino, John Green, Ellen Hopkins, Leah Johnson, Jodi Picoult, and Angie Thomas.
Plaintiffs Kristen Crookshanks and Mindy Smith, both parents of students; the NAACP’s Colorado–Montana–Wyoming State Area Conferences; and the Authors Guild filed the original complaint in December 2024, and groups including the American Association of School Librarians, Freedom to Read Foundation, the Colorado Association of Libraries, and the Trevor Project were among those that filed amicus curiae.
School district superintendent Dan Snowberger wrote in a Denver Gazette op-ed last February that the ACLU and plaintiffs were "arguing that students somehow have a First Amendment 'right to access' this inappropriate material, preventing local school boards, elected by their citizens, from deciding how to use their library collections." ESD has shared the op-ed and other materials pertinent to the case timeline on a school website landing page.
On March 19, 2025, Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney granted a preliminary injunction and ordered the defendants to reshelve the suspended books. On March 20, 2025, ESD filed a notice of appeal, although it still was required to return the books and filed a formal certificate of compliance on May 2.
Authors Guild general counsel Cheryl L. Davis, who worked on the case, told PW in an email, “We're pleased the district chose not to waste any more of the court’s time on this meritless appeal, which sought to defend what Judge Sweeney already recognized as a brazen, politically motivated violation of the First Amendment."
Crookshanks v. Elizabeth SD now returns to district court for trial.
