Re: Judge allows drag show at Texas A&M despite the university's ban

On Tue, 25 Mar 2025 23:02:19 -0000 (UTC), "P. Coonan"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>A drag show scheduled for this week at Texas A&M University can go on as 
>scheduled despite a Board of Regents ban on such performances, a federal 
>judge ruled Monday.
>
>The ruling from Houston-based U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal blocked a 
>university ban on drag performances on free speech grounds.
>
>“To ban the performance from taking place on campus because it offends 
>some members of the campus community is precisely what the First Amendment 
>prohibits,” Rosenthal, who was nominated to the bench by the late 
>President George H.W. Bush, said in her opinion.
>
>The ruling blocks the ban while the broader legal case over it moves 
>forward. The decision echoes others in recent years from the U.S. Supreme 
>Court, which refused to let Florida enforce a statewide ban, and district 
>courts in a Montana, Tennessee and Texas.
>
>Texas A&M has become a flashpoint in the most recent chapter of the legal 
>battle.
>
>Two years ago, the president of West Texas A&M in Canyon, said a drag show 
>scheduled for that campus could not move ahead. In response to a legal 
>challenge, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk said the university could 
>block the show, finding it contained “sexualized content” and could be 
>more regulated than other forms of speech.
>
>The U.S. Supreme Court last year declined to take the case when the 
>student group behind it appealed.
>
>This time around, the backdrop is different. The Board of Regents passed a 
>policy banning drag shows across the university system on Feb. 28, after 
>tickets had already been sold to the “Draggieland” show on the flagship 
>campus in College Station. The show has been an annual event there since 
>2020.
>
>
>In the first two years, the university supported it financially. But in 
>recent years, the student group Texas A&M Queer Empowerment Council has 
>been responsible for all the funding.
>
>The university argued that allowing the show could jeopardize federal 
>funding for the university in light of President Donald Trump’s executive 
>order barring federal money to support what he calls “ gender ideology.” 
>It noted how funds were cut off from Columbia University.
>
>The judge decided that allowing the event does not imply that the 
>university endorses it. By allowing it, she said, the university could 
>comply with the “constitutional obligation to allow different messages and 
>viewpoints, including those viewed as offensive to some, to be expressed 
>at a university that is committed to critical thought about a wide range 
>of conflicting and divergent viewpoints and ideologies.”
>
>A university spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for 
>comment.
>
>https://apnews.com/article/texas-university-am-drag-show-ban-judge-
>bf4ccaaf112b41602b6a5c0a6f011bc5

Another judge exceeding his authority by ordering an event to take
place.