A student group at West Texas A&M University is asking the Supreme Court to rule that they have a First Amendment right to host charity drag shows on campus after the president of the college banned such performances from campus.
Spectrum WT and two student leaders of the LGBT group filed an emergency petition on Wednesday with the Supreme Court asking to allow drag performances at the university. College President Walter Wendler has not allowed such performances on campus for over a year, according to court records.
The lawsuit has been pending for nearly a year and was initially filed ahead of a scheduled drag performance last year, which was later hosted at an off-campus site.
The group has scheduled an upcoming benefit show for March 22 and defends its shows in court filings as “PG-13” performances that are appropriate for minors if accompanied by an adult.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Donald Trump who previously ruled to limit access to a controversial abortion drug, ruled in September that Spectrum WT was not entitled to hold drag performances on campus.
“When children are involved, the calculation changes. Here, Plaintiffs expressly contemplate and even advertise the involvement of children,” Kacsmaryk wrote on Sept. 21.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a pro-free speech group, argued that Wendler has come forward since banning drag performances on campus and admitted “the law of the land appears to require” that he allow it, according to a press release.
“Whether prayer meetings or drag shows, students at state universities have a right to free expression,” FIRE posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday.
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The Supreme Court asked West Texas A&M to respond to the suit by March 13.
Earlier this week, the justices declined to wade into a dispute surrounding a lawsuit against a “bias response team” at Virginia Tech that petitioners claimed was silencing free speech on campus. The court declined to take up the case because the college had disbanded the response team after a lawsuit was brought against the school.
