TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2013 A full federal appeals court will take up a battle about a 2023 Florida law designed to prevent children from going to drag shows, after two rulings blocked the law on First Amendment grounds.<\/p>\n
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday said it will hold a full-court, or \u201cen banc,\u201d hearing in the state\u2019s appeal of a preliminary injunction issued in 2023 by U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell. The order also vacated a May decision by a panel of the Atlanta-based appeals court that upheld the injunction.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s order did not explain the court\u2019s reasoning. But it went along with a request by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who in June sought a rehearing.<\/p>\n
The Central Florida venue Hamburger Mary\u2019s challenged the constitutionality of the law, which seeks to prevent venues from admitting children to adult live performances. It defines adult live performances as \u201cany show, exhibition, or other presentation that is performed in front of a live audience, which, in whole or in part, depicts or simulates nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or specific sexual activities, \u2026 lewd conduct, or the lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts.\u201d<\/p>\n
It would allow regulators to suspend or revoke licenses of restaurants, bars and other venues that violate the law. Also, it would prohibit local governments from issuing public permits for events that could expose children to the targeted behavior.<\/p>\n
While the law did not specifically mention drag shows, it came after Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 administration cracked down on venues in South Florida and Central Florida where children attended drag shows. It also came amid a series of controversial laws passed by Republicans in Florida and other states about transgender-related issues.<\/p>\n
In upholding the preliminary injunction issued by Presnell, a panel of the appeals court, in a 2-1 decision on May 13, said that \u201cby providing only vague guidance as to which performances it prohibits, the act (the law) wields a shotgun when the First Amendment allows a scalpel at most.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Constitution demands specificity when the state restricts speech,\u201d said the 81-page majority opinion, written by Judge Robin Rosenbaum and joined by Judge Nancy Abudu. \u201cRequiring clarity in speech regulations shields us from the whims of government censors. And the need for clarity is especially strong when the government takes the legally potent step of labeling speech \u2018obscene.\u2019 An \u2018I know it when I see it\u2019 test would unconstitutionally empower those who would limit speech to arbitrarily enforce the law. But the First Amendment empowers speakers instead. Yet Florida\u2019s Senate Bill 1438 (the law) takes an \u2018I know it when I see it\u2019 approach to regulating expression.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Gerald Tjoflat dissented.<\/p>\n
The panel\u2019s majority opinion focused, in part, on the use of the words \u201clewd conduct\u201d in the law. It said the term is overbroad.<\/p>\n
But in a June 3 petition for a rehearing, lawyers in Uthmeier\u2019s office contended that the majority\u2019s \u201cFirst Amendment analysis makes it nearly impossible for a state to regulate the exposure of children to age-inappropriate performances.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018(Lewd) conduct\u2019 draws on the well-settled meaning of \u2018lewd\u2019 in Florida law, defined by the state\u2019s highest court to include the \u2018indulgence of lust, signifying that form of immorality which has a relation to sexual impurity\u2019 and \u2018indicat[ing] gross indecency with respect to the sexual relations.\u2019\u201d the petition said, partially quoting from a Florida Supreme Court decision. \u201cFlorida judges and juries have successfully applied the term for decades. And the (U.S.) Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld use of \u2018lewd,\u2019 without further definition, in federal obscenity statutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s order and a court docket did not indicate when the full court might hear the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2013 A full federal appeals court will take up a battle about a 2023 Florida law…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[39354,28,30,29,39355,99,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-67288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-drag-law","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-headlines","11":"tag-florida-news","12":"tag-hamburger-marys","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-tallahassee"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}