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Chris Geidner
@chrisgeidner.bsky.social
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NEWS: The Fifth Circuit today reversed Judge Matt Kacsmaryk's ruling allowing West Texas A&M's president to ban a charity drag show on campus.
Today, Judge Leslie Southwick, a GWB appointee, wrote the opinion reversing Kacsmaryk.
Background at Law Dork:
https://www.lawdork.com/p/university-drag-ban-arguments-focus
Before Dennis, Southwick, and Ho, Circuit Judges.
Leslie H. Southwick, Circuit Judge:
Spectrum WT is an LGBT+ student organization at West Texas
A&M University. It was in the last stages of organizing a drag show on
campus when University President Walter Wendler canceled the show. The
plaintiffs, Spectrum WT and two of its student-officers, sought a preliminary
injunction on the grounds their free speech rights were violated. The district
United States Court of Appeals
Fifth Circuit
FILED
August 18, 2025
Lyle W. Cayce
Clerk
Case: 23-10994 Document: 186-1 Page: 1 Date Filed: 08/18/2025
No. 23-10994
2
court denied the injunction, partly based on a holding that the First
Amendment did not apply to the drag show. We REVERSE.
ALT
August 18, 2025 at 5:11 PM
NEWS: The Fifth Circuit today reversed Judge Matt Kacsmaryk's ruling allowing West Texas A&M's president to ban a charity drag show on campus.
Today, Judge Leslie Southwick, a GWB appointee, wrote the opinion reversing Kacsmaryk.
Background at Law Dork: www.lawdork.com/p/university...
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner.bsky.social) 2025-08-18T21:11:38.456Z
Chris Geidner
@chrisgeidner.bsky.social
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Judge James Dennis, a Clinton appointee, joined Southwick's opinion.
Judge James Ho, the far-right Trump appointee whose pick-me (for SCOTUS) energy permeates all he does, did just that in his dissent, which my report from arguments predicted quite well.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca5.215914/gov.uscourts.ca5.215914.507660363.1.pdf
James C. Ho, Circuit Judge, dissenting:
Spectrum WT claims that it has a First Amendment right to put on a
drag show in a public facility at West Texas A&M University. But university
officials have determined that drag shows are sexist, for the same reason that
blackface performances are racist. And Supreme Court precedent demands
that we respect university officials when it comes to regulating student
activities to ensure an inclusive educational environment for all. See
Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, 561 U.S. 661 (2010).
I disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision in CLS. But I’m bound
to follow it. And I will not apply a different legal standard in this case, just
because drag shows enjoy greater favor among cultural elites than the
religious activities at issue in CLS.
*
ALT
On Monday, Ho quickly turned the arguments to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. In that case, a public university’s “all-comers” policy — that a student group seeking the benefits of a public university’s recognition must allow all to join the group — was upheld against a First Amendment challenge as being a reasonable, viewpoint-neutral policy.1
It was, at its base, a ruling that a public university can require recognized student groups to adhere to a nondiscrimination policy.
On Monday, though, Ho described it as an edict from the high court that “we have to defer to university administrators, particularly when it comes to issues of inclusion.”
ALT
August 18, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Judge James Dennis, a Clinton appointee, joined Southwick's opinion.
Judge James Ho, the far-right Trump appointee whose pick-me (for SCOTUS) energy permeates all he does, did just that in his dissent, which my report from arguments predicted quite well.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner.bsky.social) 2025-08-18T21:19:20.226Z
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