EMERGENCY DOCKET
Court refuses Florida’s request to reinstate anti-drag law
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When the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit declined to put Presnell’s order on hold to the extent that it applies beyond Hamburger Mary’s, the state came to the Supreme Court on Oct. 19, asking the justices to do so while its appeal of Presnell’s ruling moves forward.
Florida Solicitor General Henry Whitaker told the justices that Presnell’s order sweeps too broadly: He blocked the state from enforcing the anti-drag law anywhere in Florida, when he could have simply entered an order barring any prosecution of Hamburger Mary’s. Presnell’s order, Whitaker wrote, “inflicts irreparable harm on Florida and its children by purporting to erase from Florida’s statute books a law designed to prevent the exposure of children to sexually explicit live performances.”
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In a brief order on Thursday afternoon, the justices turned down the state’s request. In his statement, Kavanaugh noted that although the state “strongly disagrees” with the district court’s conclusion that the law violates the First Amendment, Florida “does not raise that issue” in its filings in the Supreme Court. Instead, Kavanaugh noted, the state was simply seeking to be able to enforce the law against entities that are not a party to the litigation. Whether district courts have the power to enter an order that bars the government from enforcing a law against non-parties is “an important question that could warrant our review in the future,” Kavanaugh acknowledged. But because of the context in which the question arises – a First Amendment case contending that a law sweeps too broadly – this case is an “imperfect vehicle” to consider the procedural question, Kavanaugh concluded, and the court was therefore correct to deny review.
https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/11/court-refuses-floridas-request-to-reinstate-anti-drag-law/
Kavanaugh makes sense here.