Overview
- Enforcement of Texas’s 2023 Senate Bill 12 resumes after the appeals court vacated a district court’s permanent block without deciding the law’s constitutionality.
- The panel found standing only for 360 Queen Entertainment and dismissed other plaintiffs that did not show plans for “sexually oriented” performances.
- Judges directed the case back to the Houston trial court to reassess facial claims under Moody v. NetChoice, which requires unconstitutional applications to substantially outweigh lawful ones.
- The majority voiced “genuine doubt” that acts like pulsing prosthetic breasts or audience spanking are protected speech in front of minors, while Judge James L. Dennis warned the decision ignores a legislative push for a drag ban.
- Attorney General Ken Paxton praised the decision as a child-protection win, the ACLU and plaintiffs vowed to continue the fight, and the ruling deepens a split with an Eleventh Circuit decision that viewed a similar Florida law as likely unconstitutional.