SCOTUS denies Florida’s request to enforce new law making it illegal for children to attend drag shows
The High Council said Thursday that it will not allow Florida to enforce its new law against drag shows where children are present while a lawsuit is pending.
The justices declined to limit a lower court order that bars the law from being enforced statewide.
Florida had asked the court to allow the law against drag shows to be enforced everywhere except at the Hamburger Mary’s restaurant in Orlando, which questioned the law’s constitutionality.
Three justices, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, said they would have granted the state’s request.
Last month, a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling order preventing enforcement of the law, which would have punished venues for allowing children into ‘live adult performances’.
The Supreme Court said Thursday that it will not allow Florida to enforce its new law against drag shows while a lawsuit is pending. Pictured: Ron DeSantis at the bill signing in May
Florida had asked the court to allow the law against drag shows to be enforced everywhere except at the Hamburger Mary’s restaurant in Orlando, which questioned the law’s constitutionality.
Hamburger Mary’s challenge alleged that the law “prohibits protected speech based on the identity of the speaker” and is vague and overbroad.
The court ruled that the law likely limited freedom of speech and could not be enforced anywhere in the state.
Hamburger Mary’s regularly hosts drag shows, including family-friendly performances on Sundays to which children are invited.
The restaurant’s owner said the law was overbroad, vaguely written and violated First Amendment rights with chilling statements.
The new law, championed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who is running for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination, penalizes venues for allowing children to attend what it called “live adult performances.”
While it did not specifically address drag shows, the legislation’s sponsor said it was aimed at those performances.
Venues that violated the law faced fines and the possibility of having their liquor licenses suspended or revoked. Individuals can be charged with a crime.
The new law prohibits venues from allowing children access to ‘any show, exhibition or other presentation performed before a live audience that depicts or simulates, in whole or in part, nudity, sexual conduct, sexual arousal, specific sexual activities,’… obscene conduct, or the obscene exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts.”
DeSantis, who is running for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination, supported the law that would penalize venues for allowing children into what she called “live adult performances.”
Three justices, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, said they would have granted the state’s request
If locations are found to have violated the law, regulators can suspend or revoke their permits.
District Judge Gregory Presnell, who was appointed to the court by President Bill Clinton in 2000, said the so-called “Protection of Children” law was “specifically intended to suppress the speeches of drag queen performers” and that the state ” already has laws that protect against obscene behavior.
The judge, who blocked the scheme, said the law was poorly defined and ‘vulnerable to broad subjectivity’.
‘A fully clothed drag queen with prosthetic breasts showing cleavage and reading an age-appropriate story to children may be labeled ‘evil’ – and therefore ‘indecent’ – by some, but such a scenario would not be the kind of obscene constitute conduct prohibited by law. the statutes” in previous case law, Presnell wrote in the 24-page ruling.
Trans rights protesters in Florida have opposed Ron DeSantis’ anti-drag bill
Presnell also drew attention to issues arising from the focus on “prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts.”
He asked what the consequences might be for cancer survivors with prosthetic genitals or breasts.
Presnell said the law also violated the Parents’ Bill of Rights and other laws.”
“All parental rights are reserved in this state to the parent of a minor child,” he wrote, “including… the right to direct the education and moral or religious education of his or her minor child.”