Here Comes The Judge!

We had two legal victories last week in federal court, one in Texas and the other in Tennessee.

Texas Judge Orders LGBTQ+ Books Be Returned to Public Libraries
The order also returns books on race that were also removed.
The Advocate
By CNN Wire
March 2, 2023

A federal judge in Texas ruled that at least 12 books removed from public libraries by Llano County officials, many because of their LGBTQ and racial content, must be placed back onto shelves within 24 hours, according to an order filed Thursday.

Seven residents sued county officials in April 2022, claiming their First and 14th Amendment rights were violated when books deemed inappropriate by some people in the community and Republican lawmakers were removed from public libraries or access was restricted.

[…]

The lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio claimed county officials removed books from the shelves of the three-branch public library system "because they disagree with the ideas within them" and terminated access to thousands of digital books because they could not ban two specific titles.

The US District Judge Robert Pitman said in his order,

"Although libraries are afforded great discretion for their selection and acquisition decisions, the First Amendment prohibits the removal of books from libraries based on either viewpoint or content discrimination," Pitman said.

[…]

"Whether or not the books in fact qualified for 'weeding' under the library's existing policies, there is no real question that the targeted review was directly prompted by complaints from patrons and county officials over the contents of these titles," the judge wrote in his order.

This is a biggy because down in Texas many of the judges were appointed by Trump. 

Then up in Tennessee another federal judge found that…

Trump-Appointed Judge Temporarily Blocks Tennessee’s Anti-Drag Law
It was to go into effect on April 1 at midnight.
The Advocate
By Alex Cooper
April 1, 2023

A federal judge in Tennessee has blocked the state’s anti-drag law from going into effect for now.

The law, which restricts drag performances, was signed into law last month by Republican Gov. Bill Lee. It passed along with a bill banning gender-affirming care for youth.

Those found in violation of the law, which outlaws as “adult cabaret entertainment” with “male or female impersonators,” could face felony charges on repeat offenses. It bans drag performances from public property or venues that “could be viewed by a person who is not an adult.”

[…]

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas L. Parker, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, handed down a 14-day temporary restraining order only hours before the law was to go into effect.

In his order, Parker explained that the state hadn’t provided “a clear answer to the Statute's purpose considering current state obscenity laws, along with the Parties' present filings on the Statute's legislative history, the Court finds that Plaintiff has made a likely case for subjecting the Statute to strict scrutiny here."

He noted that the restrictions placed on the theater were not “trifling issues for a theater company — certainly not in the free, civil society we hold our country to be.”

However, the injunction is only temporary until the court case is heard.