Dana El-Kurd

Spectrum WT's victory proved temporary.

The panel's decision would not go into effect until the case was heard by the entire Fifth Circuit Court.

Meanwhile, a full trial unfolded in Kaczmarek's court in January.

Not surprisingly, he ruled in favor of West Texas A&M.

He said that the student group had not proven that the show was meant to convey a message that might be protected by the First Amendment and that by their nature, drag shows have sexualized content and the university had the right to regulate on campus grounds.

The hearing before the full Fifth Circuit was canceled.

although Spectrum's legal team at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression plans a different appeal.

On February 25th, a panel of the Fifth Circuit also upheld a new state ban on certain types of drag performances.

Judge Kurt Engelhardt, appointed to the Fifth Circuit by President Donald Trump, expressed doubt that such shows were protected by the Constitution, especially said, quote, in the presence of minors.

While the Fifth Circuit chipped away at free speech rights for the LGBTQ plus community, it advanced the rights of states to impose speech on public school teachers.

The full court, by a 12 to 6 margin, lifted a district court's hold on a Louisiana state law requiring teachers display poster-sized copies of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.

In spite of the First Amendment's prohibition on establishing a state religion or requiring religious practice, and the efforts of the founders of the American Republic like Thomas Jefferson to erect a wall of separation between church and state, James Ho celebrated the decision.

The Louisiana law was not only constitutional, Ho said, it, quote, affirms our nation's highest and most noble traditions.

That claim left Professor Yu baffled.

The question is, is he a historian?

When he said that the founding members of this country would like that, what historical record is he relying on?

But isn't that even anti-common knowledge that our founders would really resent that to push our newly established republic to a situation where we push our citizens to believe in certain things religiously?

That is exactly the reason why they left Europe.

The Fifth Circuit has presented a threat not only to the separation of church and state, free speech, and LGBTQ plus rights, but it has also placed the rights of workers in its crosshairs.

On August 19th, the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction requested by attorneys for Elon Musk's SpaceX Corporation, ruling that the structure of the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional and prohibiting it from acting against that company and two other corporations the NLRB charged with labor law violations.