The American Booksellers Association has jointly signed an amicus brief urging the Fifth Circuit to again reject a drag ban by West Texas A&M. We join the National Coalition Against Censorship and other free expression organizations in asking the appellate court to call this ban what it is: prior restraint on constitutionally protected free expression.
The Fifth Circuit is rehearing the case en banc (that is, by every judge on the Fifth Circuit) after a three-judge panel previously ruled, in a split decision, that the ban was unconstitutional. The decision to rehear the case en banc vacates the previous decision, reinstating the ban while the case is argued and considered.
The brief argues that the full court should consider the Plaintiffs’ argument that the ban constitutes prior restraint of constitutionally protected speech, but that the District Court declined to scrutinize it as such. The amici argue: “President Wendler’s targeted, ex ante decision to bar Spectrum WT’s drag show out of dislike for its potential message is a ‘classic’ example of a prior restraint, because it commits the very sin the doctrine is meant to guard against— ‘regulating speech contingent on the will of an official’.”
ABA joins this brief in consideration of the many bookstores who host drag story time events and because public officials should not be able to restrict the free expression of others based on their personal beliefs.
The full brief is available for download.