Overview
- The Fifth Circuit vacated a 2023 district-court injunction against SB 12, allowing Texas to enforce the statute, which carries $10,000 venue fines and potential Class A misdemeanors, while litigation continues.
- Only San Antonio-based 360 Queen Entertainment was found to have standing, leaving a pared-down case focused on the attorney general’s authority to enforce Section One.
- The court said many drag shows may not be covered by the law but flagged described acts such as pulsing prosthetic breasts and audience spanking, expressing “genuine doubt” that such conduct is protected before minors.
- The panel instructed the district court to reassess the facial First Amendment claim under Moody v. NetChoice, which requires that a law’s unconstitutional applications substantially outweigh its constitutional ones.
- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton praised the ruling, the plaintiffs and ACLU of Texas vowed to keep litigating, and the decision diverges from an Eleventh Circuit ruling on a similar law, setting up potential further appeals.