The justices refused to narrow a lower-court order that has prohibited the law from being enforced statewide.
Florida had asked the court to allow its anti-drag show law to be enforced everywhere except at the Hamburger Mary's restaurant in Orlando, which challenged the law's constitutionality.
Three justices, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, said they would have granted the state's request.
Last month, a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s order stopping the law from being enforced. The district court found that the law likely restricted free speech and couldn't be enforced anywhere in the state.
Hamburger Mary’s regularly hosts drag shows, including family-friendly performances on Sundays that children are invited to attend. The restaurant’s owner said the law was overly broad, was written vaguely and violated First Amendment rights by chilling speech.
The new law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, punished venues for allowing children into what it called “adult live performances.” Though it did not mention drag shows specifically, the sponsor of the legislation said it was aimed at those performances.
Venues that violated the law faced fines and the possibility that their liquor licenses to be suspended or revoked. Individuals could be charged with a misdemeanor crime.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pledged that the U.S. and its allies wouldn't hesitate to use their sanctions powers to address Iran's "malign and destabilizing activity” in the region.
Author of 'Clean Meat,' Paul Shapiro joins Cheddar to discuss how the cellular agricultural revolution helps lower rates of foodborne illness and greatly improves environmental sustainability. Plus, how his company The Better Meat Co. is bringing healthier food options to the table.
The Biden administration is docking more than $2 million in payments to student loan servicers that failed to send billing statements on time after the end of a pandemic payment freeze.
The law, signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, prohibits people from carrying concealed guns in 26 places including public parks and playgrounds, churches, banks and zoos.
About 4 in 10 U.S. adults named foreign policy topics when asked to share up to five issues for the government to work on in the next year, about twice as many compared to the previous year's AP-NORC poll.
