Florida requested that the Supreme Court reinstate a law prohibiting minors from attending drag performances.
Florida’s Protection of Children Act, which threatens to revoke licenses for or impose fines on businesses that “knowingly” admit children to “adult live performances,” was blocked by a preliminary injunction issued by a federal judge in June.
The judge found that the law likely violates the First Amendment.
Melanie Griffin, the secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, requested that the law be reinstated in an emergency application to Justice Clarence Thomas.
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The plaintiff is an Orlando restaurant that frequently hosts drag shows and gay events; the state is merely asking for a partial stay on the injunction, which would not apply to the plaintiff.
According to the application, Florida does not think the actions the restaurant filed a lawsuit to stop, actually break the law.
Griffin’s application states, “Instead, Florida now applies for a partial stay of the injunction to the extent it sweeps beyond the plaintiff and enjoins the statute universally. That portion of the injunction exceeded the district court’s remedial authority.”
According to the application, Florida would be “powerless to enforce a law its elected representatives have enacted for the protection of its children” if the injunction were to remain in place.
By a vote of 2-1, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the lower court’s earlier October injunction request to be frozen.
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In March, Tennessee became the first state to enact legislation outlawing drag performances for minors. On May 17, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis ratified the legislation.
The restaurant that filed the lawsuit, Hamburger Mary’s, claims that the drag shows it has thrown since 2008 are appropriate for a family.
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