The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday refused to reinstate Florida’s Protection of Children Act, which makes it a crime to admit a child to an “adult live performance” that is sexually explicit, including drag shows.
Orlando-based U.S. district judge Gregory Presnell blocked the law under the First Amendment in June in response to a legal challenge brought by an Orlando bar and restaurant, Hamburger Mary’s. Lawyers for the restaurant, which hosts “family-friendly” drag shows, argued their shows “are not harmful to minors but likely still run afoul of the act due to its overbreadth and vagueness.”
The district court judge found the law was too vaguely written. The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals left the ruling in place.
Florida then asked the Supreme Court to amend the injunction to apply only to Hamburger Mary’s.
In a 6–3 decision, the court rejected Florida’s emergency request. Conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented, saying they would have allowed the state to reinstate the law, which allowed the state to fine or revoke the liquor license of any establishment that admits minors to a performance that “simulates nudity, sexual conduct or specific sexual activities” or depicts “lewd conduct.”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh explained in a brief opinion that the issue the state was raising was not one the Supreme Court would typically hear.
“This case is therefore an imperfect vehicle for considering the general question of whether a district court may enjoin a government from enforcing a law against non-parties to the litigation,” he wrote.