The Supreme Court left in place a lower court’s freeze of a Florida law on Thursday intended to shield minors from witnessing drag shows in public.
Republican Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed an application with the Supreme Court in late October asking that the prohibition against enforcing the anti-drag show law be limited to the Orlando, Florida, restaurant that challenged its constitutionality.
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The application was filed to Justice Clarence Thomas and referred by him to the full court, which held that Florida failed to show “’a reasonable probability’ that this Court would eventually grant certiorari on the question presented.”
“In sum, because this Court is not likely to grant certiorari on the only issue presented in Florida’s stay application, it is appropriate for the Court to deny the application,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a statement explaining the denial.
Justices Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch said they would have granted an application for a stay.
The law, known as the Protection of Children Act, has been on hold ever since a federal judge temporarily blocked its enforcement statewide in response to a lawsuit filed by an Orlando business known as Hamburger Mary’s, which regularly hosts drag shows and claims they offer family-friendly performances on Sundays that are suitable for children.
If it were in effect, anyone in violation in the law could be charged with a misdemeanor count. A violation would constitute knowingly admitting a child to a sexually explicit live adult performance that would be considered obscene for the “age of the child present.”
Attorneys for Hamburger Mary’s conversely asked the court to deny the request by Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s administration that would allow the law to be enforced in the state, except for Hamburger Mary’s, while a legal battle plays out in lower courts.
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Because of lower court litigation, the decision to deny the stay doesn’t offer many clues as to how the justices would rule if the Supreme Court took up the case on the merits.
Florida is just one of several Republican-led states to pass a law tailored to drag performances, though the language of the measure does not specifically mention such shows. Similar laws passed in states including Texas, Tennessee, and Montana have suffered from legal pitfalls.
