02/04/2023
A federal judge in Tennessee on Friday temporarily halted the state’s new law that criminalizes some drag performances, hours before it was set to take effect.
NOTE: When having a conflict between citizens and a state, commonwealth, or territory, the federal government is often the mediator.
Judge Thomas Parker cited constitutional protections of freedom of speech in issuing a temporary restraining order.
“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,” Parker wrote.
“The Court finds that, as it stands, the record here suggests that when the legislature passed this Statute, it missed the mark,” he wrote.
Governor Bill Lee, a Republican, signed the novel bill into law March 2. It was set to effect Saturday.
The first-of-its-kind law bans “adult cabaret entertainment” on public property or in locations where it could be viewed by a minor.
The law has sometimes been referred to as a drag ban.
