On Thursday, a federal appeals court dismissed a lawsuit challenging Tennessee’s law that protects children from viewing sexually explicit performances.
The lawsuit was filed by a Memphis theater group called Friends of George’s, which argued that the law violated the First Amendment. However, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 decision that the group lacked standing to sue.
“But the law in this area is clear—there is no constitutional interest in exhibiting indecent material to minors,” Judge John Nalbandian wrote in the decision. “The only constitutionally protected expressions implicated by the [law] are adult-oriented performances that can be constitutionally restricted from minors but not from adults—a narrow slice of speech.”
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Andre Mathis argued that the law, designed to prevent children from being exposed to sexually explicit drag shows, constitutes a restriction on the First Amendment.
The law, passed last year and signed by Governor Bill Lee, was initially blocked by a federal judge who deemed it “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad.” The legislation “creates an offense for a person who engages in an adult cabaret performance on public property or in a location where the adult cabaret performance could be viewed by a person who is not an adult.”
Following the new ruling, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti praised the court’s decision.
“Tennessee’s Adult Entertainment Act has been consistently misrepresented since its adoption,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “As a state overflowing with world-class artists and musicians, Tennessee respects the right to free expression. But as the Court noted, Tennessee’s ‘harmful to minors’ standard is constitutionally sound and Tennessee can absolutely prohibit the exhibition of obscene material to children. The Court of Appeals focused on what the law actually says and ordered the case dismissed.”
