Supreme Court Shrugs Off Opportunity To Overturn Fifth Circuit’s Batshit Support Of Texas Drag Show Ban
from the fuck-em-for-trying,-I-guess dept
The laziest court in the land has again decided it’s not worth its time to undo another horrible decision issued by an appellate court that far too often feels the Fifth (Circuit) is superior to the First (Amendment).
The nation’s top court seems more motivated to take cases if it can curtail long-held rights. When rights are already being curtailed, it appears it can’t be bothered to take a closer look. Sure, the Supreme Court has undone some horrible qualified immunity decisions issued by the Fifth Circuit, but when it comes to certain people being held under the government’s thumb? Too bad. Thanks for playing.
And such is the case here, as explained by the Associated Press.
The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency appeal from a student group that has been blocked from staging a drag show at a public university in Texas.
The justices did not comment Friday in refusing to issue an order that would have allowed Spectrum WT — a group for LGBTQ+ students and allies — to put on a charity show on March 22 on the campus of West Texas A&M University in Canyon, located just south of Amarillo.
It’s not like the Supreme Court won’t lift a finger if it’s drag shows on the line. It previously left an injunction in place preventing Florida from enforcing its anti-drag show law. There are other injunctions in place blocking similar laws in Montana and Tennessee, so the highest court in the nation will still be given opportunities to hand down precedent.
But will it? These aren’t the sort of cases the Supreme Court appears willing to address. It has twice been given an opportunity to examine appellate rulings and has twice decided it simply won’t. And now we’re looking at 50-50 splits. By ignoring this case, the highest court in the land is divided against itself, saying (without a ruling) that Florida’s law is unconstitutional while (with the same inaction) declaring Texas’s law constitutional.
Its unwillingness to review this case indicates it at least partially agrees with the ridiculous conclusion reached by the Fifth Circuit earlier this year:
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled against the group. “The First Amendment does not prevent school officials from restricting ‘vulgar and lewd’ conduct that would ‘undermine the school’s basic educational mission’ — particularly in settings where children are physically present,” Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, wrote last year.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which hears cases from Texas, refused to allow the drag show to go ahead or speed up its timetable for hearing and deciding the student group’s appeal.
Considering this case deals with drag shows hosted by public universities, the chances of actual children being present are incredibly slim. And it’s highly unlikely the audience would contain unattended children, which means the court doesn’t believe parents or guardians are capable of deciding what their kids can or can’t view.
It’s not as though cases like these have resulted in a steady stream of contradictory rulings. The Fifth Circuit Appeals Court is the outlier, much as it always is when civil rights are on the line. And not in a good way! Despite the addition of a judge who clearly recognizes rights violations when he sees them, the Fifth Circuit continues to play by its own rules. And that’s clearly unacceptable when it’s just as beholden to the Constitution as the rest of us.
The real shame here is that the Supreme Court can’t be bothered to set it straight. Then again, we should probably count ourselves lucky. When rights are on the line, the Supreme Court has indicated it would rather solidify the astounding lead white males have built for themselves than protect those who still find themselves under the thumb of straight Caucasians.
Filed Under: 1st amendment, 5th circuit, drag shows, supreme court, texas
Comments on “Supreme Court Shrugs Off Opportunity To Overturn Fifth Circuit’s Batshit Support Of Texas Drag Show Ban”
They’re waiting to see which way the election and its aftermath falls.
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And/or taking care not to demonstrate right-wing capture going into the election.
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They call their politics “judicial philosophy” and excel at parallel construction and plausible deniability among other things.
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Like quoting witch-hunters.
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Burma-Shave
When ppl say “no one wants to work anymore” it’s important to remember that they are only ever talking about scotus, regardless of whatever else they say
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Resident anarcho-communist upset that the degenerate LGBTQ+ agenda isn’t quite being force-fed to every American, everywhere (yet) 🖕
Re: Me thinks the lady doth protest too much
Hey Herman it’s ok to be gay and wear women’s clothes.
Re: Re: Me thinks the lady doth protest too much
No, it’s not. He would immediately self-destruct if he tried it.
/s (just in case.)
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Since human self-destruction isn’t actually possible, it’s sad that you might actually need that sarc mark.
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We don’t want him.
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Yes it is. You may do so if you wish but why does everyone need to know?
On one hand its whats between someones legs is not important and the other hand trying to put it in everyones face.
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I’m just here to remind folks that the conservative agenda for LGBTQ+ folks is to psychologically torture them to suicide when they’re kids.
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And to throw the adults in the torture cages they pass off as corrections systems. And that’s just what they’re demonstrably doing with the power they currently have.
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As they equate queer people with groomers, work prevent their children from understanding how to recognize and abuse, and then turn a blind eye to what Uncle Pastor or the high school football team is doing.
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recognize and report abuse
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Literally one of the things conservatives are trying to conserve is child marriage.
This is also demonstrable.
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Teaching their kids to abuse is one thing they absolutely do. Generational trauma exists at scale, and it is the primary thing that conservatives work to conserve.
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Resident anarcho-Nazi delighted that the idea that LGBT+ people also have rights isn’t quite being accepted by every American, everywhere (yet).
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“Anarcho-Nazi,” much like “anarcho-capitalism,” is a nonsense phrase.
Anarchism explicitly rejects the notion of private property (which our capitalist friends consistently conflate with personal property.)
Nazis are morons. We don’t expect them to understand what they’re talking about. On our end, however, we need to understand that anarchism is antithesis of Nazism, and that anarchism inherently accommodates personal ownership of homes and toothbrushes, among other things.
Please stop letting rightoids redefine words. They’ve already done a number painting voting rights as “communism.”
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Anarcho-Nazism aka national-anarchism, but you just keep openly supporting your neo-Nazi buddies, shit for brains. Makes it easier for us more accepting people to find and flag you.
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I’m aware of the right wing’s tendency to co-opt words and use them nonsensically. I’m not sure how you’ve arrived at the conclusion that makes me a Nazi, but go off, dipshit.
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Very likely the fact you tried to pretend there’s no such thing as anarcho-Nazism in the clear attempt at obfuscating its existence, thereby showing that you yourself are an anarcho-Nazi trying to stay out of the spotlight. AC seems to have been right on the money.
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There is no such thing. It’s an oxymoron. Like wet fire.
‘Meh’ out of a possible ten (10) maximum. Thank you for playing.
Sometimes silence it itself an answer
US Supreme Court: After careful consideration we have decided that we will not issue a ruling on this subject.
Translation: We absolutely support what’s being done and think the Fifth Circuit got it right but are too gutless to actually admit that lest it rightly motivate people to vote against the party that stacked this court in their favor.
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Kinda OT, but has anyone watched the 30-episode Chinese “Three-Body” show season 1?
Just curious. (And if you have, is it any good?)
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Ban on Drag Shows
Sorry, but the “batshit” here is the actual drag show..
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The dipshit here is you.
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Why do you support grooming vulnerable children and young people into the LGBTQ+ death cult?
Just curious.
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You’re espousing a Nazi conspiracy theory.
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You’ll never be loved or happy.
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You know Christianity is a literal death cult filled with groomers, right? The entire thing is ‘Give us money to celebrate someone who died, but not really, and you will be happy once you’re dead, also force your children to attend mass indoctrination sessions in a building filled with other cultists and chant to their invisible friend multiple times a day. If your kids are molested, don’t go to the authorities, sue or get angry because we moved them elsewhere to keep doing it to other kids, just see it as part of a plan and maybe blame your kids. Not the cult, never the cult.’
When drag shows are protected by government the way churches are, wen they’re given special protections and tax free status, when people try to pass laws to shield them from consequences after generations are harmed by systematic abuse, when they have buildings filled with treasure stolen from the victims of genocide, then you can be mad at them, until then you’re just mad at art and expression you don’t like and are screaming about it in one breath while wailing about cancel culture and censorship in the next while, again, protecting actual groomers in the religious and secular world, like the orange goblin, friend of Epstein, who bragged about walking into the changing rooms at a teen pageant he owned.
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Don’t tar all denominations of Christianity with the same broad brush. There’s no evidence that the Unitarian-Universalist church has ever been guilty of grooming.
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There’s more bad than good among American Christians.
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And not all Christians (both real and pretenders to that title) are American, same as Techdirt’s readership. Your point?
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It took me nearly the first forty years of my life to look through American Christians and see the good in Christ.
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The Regal Westview came calling. They want their IMAX projector back.
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…says the bot with more letters in their username than brain cells.
The Extreme Court
Anyone who thinks that our”Supreme Court” isn’t corrupt need look no further than the failure of the Trump nominees to recuse themselves instead of carrying water for the orange Mafioso to inform their opinion.
Every day we move further into taxation without representation, the very thing this country was created to escape. Time to get out the TAR AND FEATHERS.
What a drag….
“U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled against the group. “The First Amendment does not prevent school officials from restricting ‘vulgar and lewd’ conduct that would ‘undermine the school’s basic educational mission’”
I find the speech of the campus ministry group & their invited guests to be vulgar & the book they promote is lewd. (We got daddy drunk so he’s knock we, his daughters, up).
Lemme know when the judge explodes trying to justify how 1 is okay and the other is not.
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Groomer scum should be sterilized then executed.
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But then who will lead mass or work in the Trump WH?
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Wow, you really hate yourself to want to die so bad.
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Don’t be so hard on yourself.
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I’ll be happy to handle yours.
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I agree with you, but many churches would lose a lot of their clergy members if they allowed that to happen.
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That’s because you’re degenerate, neo-Marxist scum.
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Ohhh noes, nameless fuckwad in the internet has thoughts about me!!!
Mom still thinks I’m cute, Helicopter Twitter still chats with me, so perhaps your view of me is clouded by your inability to think for yourself & just assume all things in a group are the same (well unless we talk about wypipo & magically we can’t judge them that way!).
Thanks for playing, you’re bad at this game.
BYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Cope, nerd.
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You are at least admitting he’s smarter than you.
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This is what kids who eat paste grow up to be.
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The fuck is a Neo-Marxist? Other than some shit you head someone just a Dumbshit as you say.
I wonder if the college would approve someone giving a speech that talks about how terrible abortion is and how the government should be a Christian theocracy if the person reading it was in drag.
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Strangely I suspect that in that case they wouldn’t be too concerned over how the speaker was dressing when they gave their talk…
Shit like this is why I’m afraid I’ll have to leave the country. The GOP wants a federal trans healthcare ban and SCOTUS isn’t gonna stop them.
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The only “healthcare” that should be available for “trans” people is assisted suicide. (Which would surely appeal to the 41% who top themselves anyway!)
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Funny. That’s how I feel about conservatives. Getting damned tired of subsidizing your idiocy with my federal tax dollars.
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I mean, trans people have every possibility of doing something useful and good with their lives. Conservatism is just a conscious decision to be neither good nor useful.
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When Trump wins (which sorry to say is likely), the GOP will go for it all. Transgenders will be banned. The internet will be censored and anonymity gone. You will need ID to do anything. Abortion and birth control will be banned (they are already talking about this). Gay marriage will be gone. And porn will be banned. And the Supreme Court will just sit there and deny every case.
Although lesbians will still be allowed to marry so they can continue to fill Republicans’ mental wank stash.