From Thursday's order in Griffin v. HM Florida-ORL, LLC (see here for a post on the opinion below) (emphasis added):
The application for stay presented to Justice Thomas and by him referred to the Court is denied.
Justice Thomas, Justice Alito, and Justice Gorsuch would grant the application for stay.
Statement of Justice Kavanaugh, with whom Justice Barrett joins except as to footnote 1 [noted in braces below -EV], respecting the denial of the application for stay.
Florida recently enacted a law that makes it a misdemeanor for a restaurant or bar to knowingly admit a child to an "adult live performance," defined as a sexually explicit show that would be obscene in light of the child's age. An Orlando restaurant known as Hamburger Mary's sued the State (nominally, the relevant state official) and argued that the new Florida law violated the First Amendment.
The District Court agreed that the law was likely unconstitutional, and the court preliminarily enjoined the State from enforcing the law against Hamburger Mary's or any other entity, including non-parties to this litigation. Florida has appealed the District Court's judgment to the Eleventh Circuit. That appeal is pending.
As relevant here, Florida seeks a partial stay of the District Court's judgment while the appeal is ongoing. The Eleventh Circuit denied the State's stay request, and Florida now asks this Court for a stay pending appeal. For this Court to grant a stay pending appeal, a stay applicant must show, among other things, "a reasonable probability" that this Court would eventually grant certiorari on the question presented in the stay application if the district court's judgment were affirmed on appeal. The State has not made that showing here.
