A federal appeals court says Texas can enforce a 2023 law that bans some public drag shows. Senate Bill 12 prohibits drag performers from dancing suggestively, or while wearing certain prosthetics on public property, or in presence of children. A federal judge in 2023 declared that the law violates the First Amendment.
On Thursday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that the plaintiffs couldn’t be harmed by the law because they hadn’t proved they intended to conduct a “sexually oriented performance.”