A panel for the 5th Circuit reaffirmed that Texas can enforce a law regulating “sexually oriented performances”
By Catholics for Catholics
A Texas law that limits drag shows can be implemented next month, a federal appeals court ruled this week, permitting the state to enact fines of up to $10,000 on business owners who host some drag routines in the presence of children.
However, the appeals court did not rule on the law’s constitutionality, and the exact parameters of what is and is not permitted under the law will continue to be contested, according to Fox News.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit reasserted its November ruling, saying Texas can apply the 2023 law regulating “sexually oriented performances.” The two-judge panel said only one plaintiff in the case had standing and sent the lawsuit back to the lower court to reevaluate the plaintiff’s First Amendment claim.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is a candidate for Senate, framed the decision as a “major win” in a statement on social media.
“I successfully defended a law protecting children from being exposed to sexually illicit content at erotic drag shows,” Paxton said. “I will always work to shield our kids from exposure to erotic and inappropriate sexually oriented performances.”
Brought by several self-described LGBTQ organizations, the lawsuit focused on a state Senate bill that defined sexually oriented performances as visual performances that feature a nude person or sexual conduct and “[appeal] to the prurient interest in sex.” Under the law, a person could be prosecuted for causing a performance to take place in front of minors.
Judge Kurt Engelhardt, an appointee of President Donald Trump, wrote the opinion and was joined by Judge Leslie Southwick, an appointee of former President George W. Bush.
According to the judges, most of the plaintiffs, including a nonprofit called Woodlands Pride, did not have standing to bring First and Fourteenth Amendment challenges to the law because the groups’ performances were nonthreatening and therefore did not fall under the Texas law.
The judges said, however, that a group called 360 Queen Entertainment did engage in performances, sometimes in front of minors, and therefore had standing.
“Based on the evidence introduced at trial, 360 Queen’s performances arguably include proscribed conduct,” Engelhardt wrote. “The owner described one performance where a drag queen, who was wearing a ‘very revealing’ breastplate, pulsed the breastplate in front of people and put the breastplate in people’s faces.”
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