diff --git a/java/lance-jni/src/sql.rs b/java/lance-jni/src/sql.rs
index 970485aa06e..5d37580bb9f 100644
--- a/java/lance-jni/src/sql.rs
+++ b/java/lance-jni/src/sql.rs
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ fn sql_builder(
     let sql_str = sql.extract(env)?;
     let table_str = env.get_string_opt(&table_name)?;
 
-    let mut dataset_guard =
+    let dataset_guard =
         unsafe { env.get_rust_field::<_, _, BlockingDataset>(java_dataset, NATIVE_DATASET) }?;
 
     let mut builder = dataset_guard
diff --git a/python/src/dataset.rs b/python/src/dataset.rs
index 06cd5965899..e31071bb345 100644
--- a/python/src/dataset.rs
+++ b/python/src/dataset.rs
@@ -2567,8 +2567,7 @@ impl Dataset {
 
     #[pyo3(signature=(sql))]
     fn sql(&self, sql: String) -> PyResult<SqlQueryBuilder> {
-        let mut ds = self.ds.as_ref().clone();
-        let builder = ds.sql(&sql);
+        let builder = self.ds.sql(&sql);
         Ok(SqlQueryBuilder { builder })
     }
 }
diff --git a/rust/lance/src/dataset.rs b/rust/lance/src/dataset.rs
index d3fd1bc0a8c..833bec68be1 100644
--- a/rust/lance/src/dataset.rs
+++ b/rust/lance/src/dataset.rs
@@ -1997,7 +1997,7 @@ impl Dataset {
     /// Run a SQL query against the dataset.
     /// The underlying SQL engine is DataFusion.
     /// Please refer to the DataFusion documentation for supported SQL syntax.
-    pub fn sql(&mut self, sql: &str) -> SqlQueryBuilder {
+    pub fn sql(&self, sql: &str) -> SqlQueryBuilder {
         SqlQueryBuilder::new(self.clone(), sql)
     }
 
diff --git a/rust/lance/src/dataset/sql.rs b/rust/lance/src/dataset/sql.rs
index 4c58375619e..bf05a080aa3 100644
--- a/rust/lance/src/dataset/sql.rs
+++ b/rust/lance/src/dataset/sql.rs
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ mod tests {
 
     #[tokio::test]
     async fn test_sql_execute() {
-        let mut ds = gen_batch()
+        let ds = gen_batch()
             .col("x", array::step::<Int32Type>())
             .col("y", array::step_custom::<Int32Type>(0, 2))
             .into_dataset(
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ mod tests {
 
     #[tokio::test]
     async fn test_sql_count() {
-        let mut ds = gen_batch()
+        let ds = gen_batch()
             .col("x", array::step::<Int32Type>())
             .col("y", array::step_custom::<Int32Type>(0, 2))
             .into_dataset(
@@ -211,7 +211,7 @@ mod tests {
 
     #[tokio::test]
     async fn test_explain() {
-        let mut ds = gen_batch()
+        let ds = gen_batch()
             .col("x", array::step::<Int32Type>())
             .col("y", array::step_custom::<Int32Type>(0, 2))
             .into_dataset(
@@ -248,7 +248,7 @@ mod tests {
 
     #[tokio::test]
     async fn test_analyze() {
-        let mut ds = gen_batch()
+        let ds = gen_batch()
             .col("x", array::step::<Int32Type>())
             .col("y", array::step_custom::<Int32Type>(0, 2))
             .into_dataset(