Reagan-Appointed Judge Strikes Down Texas Drag Show Ban Again, Cites Dolly Parton

A federal judge in Houston struck down Texas's drag show ban on Tuesday, August 25, for the second time, ruling the law is so broadly written it could criminalize performances by Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, or a high school cheerleading squad.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner, appointed by Ronald Reagan, ruled that Texas Senate Bill 12 violates the First Amendment. Hittner is a Reagan appointee applying free speech law as written.

SB 12, passed in 2023, banned "sexually oriented performances" presented in front of anyone under 18 on Texas business premises. Violating business owners faced fines up to $10,000 per event. Performers could be charged with a Class A misdemeanor carrying up to a year in jail, according to Courthouse News Service.

Hittner first blocked the law in September 2023. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the most conservative appellate courts in the country, overturned that injunction in late 2025 and sent the case back with specific instructions on how to reassess it. Enforcement resumed in March 2026. Hittner's new ruling, following the Fifth Circuit's framework and the Supreme Court's 2024 decision in Moody v. NetChoice, blocks the law again.

Why the law failed

Hittner's problem with SB 12 wasn't that Texas can't regulate anything sexual in front of kids. It's that the law's definitions were so loose they'd sweep up huge amounts of constitutionally protected speech that has nothing to do with drag.

The judge zeroed in on three terms: "visual performances," "nude," and "prurient interest in sex." He wrote that the definition of "performance" borrowed from the Texas Penal Code could apply to sports games and art exhibitions, not just drag shows. And because the law never specifies who decides whether something appeals to "prurient interest," or requires judging a performance as a whole, Hittner said "a single moment of eroticism could condemn an entire performance to criminal or civil penalties."

A law that can't tell a prosecutor or a business owner what's actually banned invites arbitrary enforcement. Even conservatives who support restricting sexualized content around children should want that content defined narrowly enough that it doesn't also ban a cheerleading routine or a Miley Cyrus concert.

Hittner drove the point home by invoking three specific performers: Elvis Presley, whose hip movements scandalized parents in the 1950s; Miley Cyrus, criticized for twerking at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards; and Dolly Parton, "a voluptuous sex symbol because of her big hair, flamboyant clothes, and breast exposure." The ruling came down the same day Parton's death, at age 80, was announced.

The politics

The ruling blocks Paxton, the state's attorney general and Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, from enforcing the law he defended in court. Paxton responded on X, calling the decision "a profoundly flawed decision that endangers our children and is an affront to Texas values," according to The Guardian. He says he will appeal.

Paxton's objection deserves to be stated plainly and taken seriously on its own terms: parents have a legitimate interest in shielding children from sexualized content, and a state legislature has authority to regulate what happens in public accommodations. That's not a fringe position, and courts have upheld restrictions when they're written narrowly.

The problem for Texas is that SB 12, as written, isn't narrow. Hittner didn't rule that Texas can never regulate sexually explicit performances in front of children. He ruled that this particular law's language was so broad it would also ban constitutionally protected, non-sexual performances just because they had "erotic" undertones somebody might object to. That's the distinction the Fifth Circuit told him to apply, and it's the one he applied.

One of the plaintiffs, a drag performer who goes by Brigitte Bandit and impersonates Parton in her act, celebrated the ruling on social media and announced she'll perform as Parton at an Austin bar Saturday. Parton reportedly gave Bandit a rhinestone guitar in 2023, according to NBC News.

What happens next

Paxton's promised appeal would go back to the Fifth Circuit, the same court that already sent this case back once with instructions. Whether Texas rewrites SB 12 with narrower definitions, rather than appeal a second loss, remains an open question. A narrower law, one that actually defines who judges "prurient interest" and requires performances be assessed as a whole, might survive where this one didn't. For now, Texas businesses can host drag performances without fear of the $10,000 fine or criminal charges the 2023 law threatened.