A federal judge won’t limit his previous ruling that temporarily blocked a Florida law he has determined violated the constitutional rights of drag performers.
U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell on Wednesday denied a motion asking that his injunction blocking the law apply only to the plaintiff in the case, the Hamburger Mary’s restaurant in downtown Orlando.
“This injunction protects Plaintiff’s interests, but because the statute is facially unconstitutional, the injunction necessarily must extend to protect all Floridians,” Presnell wrote in his order.
At issue is a new Florida law that contains penalties for any venue allowing children into a sexually explicit “adult live performance.” The law includes potential first-degree misdemeanor charges for violators.
Hamburger Mary’s filed a lawsuit in May against Gov. Ron DeSantis, the state, and Melanie Griffin, secretary of Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation. DeSantis, who signed the measure into law, and the state have since been dropped as defendants, with Griffin remaining.
The downtown Orlando restaurant, which opened in 2008, has held drag performances that include bingo, trivia and comedy.
Presnell in June issued an order preventing Griffin’s agency from enforcing the law pending the outcome of a trial. He also denied the state’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
In that ruling, Presnell, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, questioned what the line in the law about “prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts” would mean for cancer survivors.
“It is this vague language — dangerously susceptible to standardless, overbroad enforcement which could sweep up substantial protected speech — which distinguishes [the new Florida law] and renders Plaintiff’s claim likely to succeed on the merits,” Presnell wrote.
State attorneys representing Griffin then requested a stay to Presnell’s order for parties other than Hamburger Mary’s. The state also has filed an appeal to Presnell’s ruling.
“The Court’s injunction also sweeps beyond Plaintiff to nonparties who may wish to expose children to live obscene performances in violation of the statute,” lawyers for the state agency argued in requesting the stay. “The portion of the injunction that applies to nonparties threatens Florida, and the children Florida enacted the law to protect, with irreparable harm, and is beyond the Court’s remedial authority.”
But Presnell on Wednesday denied that request, writing: “By her motion, Defendant seeks to neuter the Court’s injunction, restricting her enforcement only as to Plaintiff and leaving every other Floridian exposed to the chilling effect of this facially unconstitutional statute.”
