NOT SO FAST

Tennessee’s Drag Ban Blocked by Trump-Nominated Judge

The move came just before the ban was set to take effect.

A ban on drag performances signed into law earlier this month by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and set to go into effect at midnight Saturday has been put on hold by a federal judge. Siding with Memphis-based LGBTQ theater group Friends of George’s, which had sued over the legislation on March 27, Judge Thomas Parker cited free speech concerns to explain blocking the law for at least 14 days. “If Tennessee wishes to exercise its police power in restricting speech it considers obscene, it must do so within the constraints and framework of the United States Constitution,” wrote Parker, a nominee of former President Donald Trump. “The Court finds that, as it stands, the record here suggests that when the legislature passed this Statute, it missed the mark.”