Claim:
A federal judge ordered the Department of Defense Education Activity to replace books that were removed from five schools on military bases due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive orders.
Rating:
In late October 2025, a claim spread online that a federal judge declared books previously removed from five schools on military bases run by the Department of Defense Education Activity be returned.
The Department of Defense purportedly removed the books in question in compliance with executive orders U.S. President Donald Trump signed in early 2025. The orders sought to remove alleged “anti-American” ideology from classrooms, specifically targeting LGBTQ+ and diversity, equity and inclusion themes.
Users on Facebook (archived), Threads (archived), Instagram (archived) and Reddit shared the claim, with some commenters asking questions such as, “Why is the department of defense involved in school curriculum?”
Federal judge orders Pentagon to restore LGBTQ+ books, gender & diversity lessons in military schools
byu/Fickle-Ad5449 inMilitary
The claim that a federal judge ordered the DOD’s education agency to replace books previously removed from five schools due to Trump’s executive orders was true. U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles of the Eastern District of Virginia issed her decision on Oct. 20, 2025.
Snopes contacted the department and DoDEA for comment on the judge’s ruling and will update this article if we receive a response.
In April 2025, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Kentucky, and the ACLU of Virginia filed a motion on behalf of 12 students and their families, seeking a “preliminary injunction … to declare DoDEA’s enforcement of executive orders resulting in classroom censorship unconstitutional.”
A court document listed nearly 600 removed titles, including common targets of book bans in recent years such as “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe and “All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto” by George M. Johnson.
In the ruling, Giles cited a 1967 Supreme Court ruling that declared public-school libraries were a place where students could be “free to inquire, to study and to evaluate, to gain new maturity and understanding; otherwise our civilization will stagnate and die.”
Giles ordered the DoDEA to “immediately restore the books and curricular materials that have been removed since January 19, 2025, due to the Executive Orders, to their preexisting shelves, classrooms, and units at Plaintiffs’ five schools.”
Giles further stated that “school libraries lack the quintessential elements of government speech” and that “viewing public school libraries as places of academic freedom and intellectual pursuit conflicts with the United States’ notion that school libraries represent government speech.”
Giles prohibited the agency from removing more books in the decision, stating, “Defendants DoDEA, Dr. Beth Schiavano-Narvaez [the DoDEA director], and Secretary of Defense Peter Brian Hegseth are enjoined from further removal of educational books and curricular content in implementation of Executive Order Nos. 14168, 14185, and 14190 and any related memoranda, directives, and guidance at Plaintiffs’ DoDEA schools.”
The judge wrote “that Defendants removed books with any inkling of the partisan ideas central to the EOs, without even completing the detailed review process, further evinces the improper partisan motivation underlying their actions.”
What the executive orders declared
Executive Order 14168, issued Jan. 20, 2025, and titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” effectively aimed to define gender in the binary, citing “immutable biological classification as either male or female.”
Executive Order 14185, issued Jan. 27, 2025, and titled “Restoring America’s Fighting Force,” demanded removal of DEI programs from the armed forces, purporting the “elimination of race-based and sex-based discrimination within the Armed Forces of the United States.” In response, a memo from Hegseth’s office stated, “Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, as defined in the January 27, 2025, Executive Order, are incompatible with the values of DoD.”
Executive Order 14190, issued Jan. 29, 2025, and titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” alleged that “parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight” and aimed to remove purported “anti-American, subversive, harmful, and false ideologies” from classrooms. The administration pointed to gender identity and the concept of “white privilege” as examples.
Shortly after Trump signed the orders, the Department of Defense issued a notice titled “Identity Months Dead at DoD,” which stated “official resources” could no longer be used in relation to “cultural awareness months,” such as Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Pride Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and many others.
Some DoDEA schools canceled events in addition to removing books from their libraries. NPR reported, “Two elementary schools cancelled Black History Month events, teachers at a middle school were told to remove posters of education activist Malala Yousafzai and painter Frida Kahlo and another school cancelled Holocaust Remembrance Day.”
Giles’ decision said the students engaged in protesting the removal of books from their schools, including “staged walkouts” and “carrying signs with messages like: ‘Read Banned Books’ and “All History Matters.'”
Giles wrote, “Some students were threatened with punishments due to excessive ‘unexcused absences.’ Plaintiffs assert that they are ‘increasingly afraid to discuss race and gender in their classrooms, because they fear being silenced by teachers fearful of violating the EOs and DoDEA guidance.'”
Sources
Blair, Elizabeth. “Books about Race and Gender to Be Returned to School Libraries on Some Military Bases.” NPR, 21 Oct. 2025. Books. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2025/10/21/nx-s1-5580738/judge-banned-books-returned-to-military-school-libraries.
“Civil Action No. 1:25-Cv-637 (PTG/IDD) — MEMORANDUM OPINION.” United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia – Alexandria Division, 20 Oct. 2025, https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/ek-v-department-of-defense-education-activity-memorandum-opinion.pdf.
“Civil Action No. 1:25-Cv-637 (PTG/IDD) — MEMORANDUM ORDER.” United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia – Alexandria Division, 11 Jul. 2025, https://www.aclu-ky.org/app/uploads/2025/10/EK-v-DoDEA-List-of-Books-Removed.pdf.
“Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” Federal Register, 30 Jan. 2025, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/30/2025-02090/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal.
“E.K. and S.K., Minors, by and through Their Parent and next Friend LINDSEY KEELEY; O.H., S.H., and H.H., Minors, by and through Their Parent and next Friend, JESSICA HENNINGER; E.G., a Minor, by and through His Parent and next Friend MEGAN JEBELES; E.Y. and C.Y. Minors, by and through Their Parent and next Friend ANNA YOUNG; L.K., L.K., and L.K., Minors, by and through Their Parent and next Friend ANNA KENKEL; and M.T., a Minor, by and through Her Parent NATALIE TOLLEY, Plaintiffs, v. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE EDUCATION ACTIVITY; DR. BETH SCHIAVINO-NARVAEZ, in Her Official Capacity as Director of the Department of Defense Education Activity; and PETER BRIAN HEGSETH, in His Official Capacity as Secretary of Defense, Defendants.” United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia – Alexandria Division, 15 Apr. 2025, https://www.aclu-ky.org/app/uploads/2025/04/ek_v_dodea_-_2025.04.15_ecf_001_-_complaint.pdf.
“Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling.” Federal Register, 3 Feb. 2025, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/02/03/2025-02232/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling.
Hegseth, Pete. “MEMORANDUM FOR SENIOR PENTAGON LEADERSHIP COMMANDERS OF THE COMBATANT COMMANDS DEFENSE AGENCY AND DOD FIELD ACT[VITY DrRECTORS.” U.S. Department of Defense, 29 Jan. 2025, https://media.defense.gov/2025/Jan/29/2003634987/-1/-1/1/RESTORING-AMERICAS-FIGHTING-FORCE.PDF.
“Identity Months Dead at DoD.” U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Defense, 31 Jan. 2025, https://www.war.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/4050331/identity-months-dead-at-dod/.
“Keyishian v. Board of Regents, 385 U.S. 589 (1967).” Justia Law, https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/385/589/. Accessed 23 Oct. 2025.
“LGBTQ+ Titles Targeted for Censorship: Stand Against Book Banning.” The New York Public Library, https://www.nypl.org/blog/2023/06/23/lgbtq-titles-targeted-censorship-stand-against-book-banning. Accessed 23 Oct. 2025.
Military Families Sue to Keep Thriving DoD Schools Diverse. https://www.advocate.com/news/military-familes-sue-pentagon-schools. Accessed 23 Oct. 2025.
Pentagon Must Restore LGBTQ+ Lessons, Books at DoDEA Schools. https://www.advocate.com/news/pentagon-restore-lgbtq-books-lessons. Accessed 23 Oct. 2025.
“Restoring America’s Fighting Force.” Federal Register, 3 Feb. 2025, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/02/03/2025-02181/restoring-americas-fighting-force.
