Overview

• A 2–1 Fifth Circuit panel held that drag performances are protected expressive conduct and that restrictions on them must satisfy strict scrutiny.
• The order overturns a lower court’s refusal to enjoin President Walter Wendler’s 2023 cancellation of a student charity show and his campuswide no‑drag directive.
• Judges concluded the planned venue, Legacy Hall, functions as a designated public forum, making a drag‑specific prohibition a content‑based restriction unlikely to survive constitutional review.
• Judge James C. Ho dissented, asserting drag is not inherently expressive and warning the decision could influence disputes such as women’s sports.
• The ruling follows a separate federal injunction against the Texas A&M System’s drag ban, as FIRE and the ACLU of Texas press other universities, including UNT, to end similar pauses.