Posted on 04/01/2023 9:06:45 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A federal judge blocked a Tennessee law on Friday that would have limited drag queens’ performances in front of children, one day before it was scheduled to take effect on April 1.
Granting a temporary restraining order to Friends of George’s, a Memphis-based LGBTQ theater group that brought the lawsuit to court, U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker ruled that the law’s enforcement would be blocked for two weeks. He described the legislation as “likely both vague and overly-broad.”
“Does a citizen’s private residence count? How about a camping ground at a national park? What if a minor browsing the world wide web from a public library views an ‘adult cabaret performance’?” Parker wrote in Friday’s ruling. “Ultimately, the Statute’s broad language clashes with the First Amendment’s tight constraints.”
He continued:
The Court is mindful that a TRO is an extraordinary remedy, and that enjoining enforcement of the Statute precludes, or at least delays, the Tennessee General Assembly’s legislative act. The Court does not take such actions lightly. But within our country’s federal framework, states are laboratories of democracy that can test laws and policies enacted by The People.
Even still, these experiments are not without constraints. The United States Constitution—a law that is supreme even to the Tennessee General Assembly’s acts—has placed some issues beyond the reach of the democratic process. First among them is the freedom of speech. If Tennessee wishes to exercise its police power in restricting speech it considers obscene, it must do so within the constraints and framework of the United States Constitution. The Court finds that, as it stands, the record here suggests that when the legislature passed this Statute, it missed the mark.
The blocking of the law came just one day before it was set to take effect after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) signed a bill earlier in March aimed at restricting drag queens from performing in front of impressionable young children.
The legislation reads:
This bill creates an offense for a person who engages in an adult cabaret performance on public property or in a location where the adult cabaret performance could be viewed by a person who is not an adult. The bill defines an “adult cabaret performance” to mean a performance in a location other than an adult cabaret that features topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers, male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest, or similar entertainers, regardless of whether or not performed for consideration.
As part of a sweeping set of reforms aimed at protecting children from abuse, Tennessee also banned transgender surgeries, hormones, and puberty blockers for those under the age of 18.
Political tensions over transgenderism and LGBT rights are at an all-time high in Tennessee after a 28-year-old transgender man opened fire on students at a private Christian school near Nashville which they had once attended. Six people were killed in the incident, including three, nine-year-old children.
Transgender activists have since attempted to make themselves the victims of the attack, complaining about a potentially violent backlash against the community.
“You don’t know if [the shooter’s gender identity] is going to trigger a community of people who already hated us to come and try to shoot us to prove a point,” one transgender activist told Sky News. “At the end of the day, there’s a lot of hurt going on, there’s a lot of anger going on, there’s a lot of confusion going on.”
Where does the buck stop? I believe that things that happen under a president’s watch are the responsibility of that president.
But conservatives are denied freedom of speech.
Do those who write these laws consider and anticipate what the counter arguments will be, and thus write them so they can pass muster?
You sir, are the King of stawmen everywhere.
Drag much ?
Posting about your lack of knowledge of how the federal judge nomination process works is just jackassin'.
Do better on this fine Sunday, and try to avoid beclowning yourself for the rest of the day.
LOL! I know the process of nomination and confirmation for the Federal Judiciary.
I also don’t whine about how President Trump had little choice to nominate the judges that he did when I don’t agree with decisions by a Trump nominated judge.
Instead of whining about that, reading the Judge’s ruling would seem a better use of time.
Those are McConnell stooge numbers.
Quit jackassin', and do better.
Don't you have some vote fraud to deny today?
Re: 27 - Please read the Judge’s Order here:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.tnwd.98391/gov.uscourts.tnwd.98391.26.0.pdf
and learn.
“Don’t you have some vote fraud to deny today?”
Still waiting for Mike Lindell’s packet captures. Maybe that will help settle the question of vote fraud.
As for your groomer "judge"'s spew:
LOL!
And when you call these trolls out, you get the classic, quite inane “LOL!” in response. (Don’t forget the exclamation point.)
Because they have *nothing.*
Do better [but not with the defense of groomerphile “judges”].
I saw Romeo and Juliet at the Folgier Shakespeare Theater in DC in 1986 for a college course I was taking. Some of it was pretty risque. In the opening scene, one of the men briefly used a baguette-type loaf of bread to simulate an erection as they went through their lines.
So, yeah, ya just might have to be over 18 in Tennessee to see Shakespeare under this law.
LOL!
You know what’s sad?
You can’t even argue the Judge’s Order.
EVERY post you have made is regarding how Parker is a McConnell judge.
Either you are unwilling, or perhaps unable to discuss the Judge’s Order.
And then you call someone who doesn’t agree with your whine about Parker being a McConnell judge a “groomer”. Which is a tactic of the Far Left.
When you want to discuss the specifics of the Order, let me know.
Do better.
You can’t even argue the Judge’s Order.
You know what’s sad?
You defending the groomer position on FR.
LOL!
Let know when you want to argue the Judge's Order and the legal basis for it.
The way you defend vote fraud on Free Republic.
They DO have the lefty Talking Points from The DUmp...
Re: 35 - LOL!
You don’t even know what I think about the Judge’s Order.
What I have posted is that I won’t whine about Parker being a McConnell judge.
Every comment you have made indicates you are not capable of reading and understanding the Judge’s Order.
Every comment I have made indicates that you are posting Talking Points from the groomers at The DUmp.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.