This blog originally appeared at Reuters.

Sept 22 (Reuters) – A LGBTQ student group did not have an inherent constitutional right to hold a charity drag show on West Texas A&M University’s campus over the objections of the school’s president, who deemed such performances “misogynistic” and mocking of womanhood, a federal judge ruled.

Sept 22 (Reuters) – A LGBTQ student group did not have an inherent constitutional right to hold a charity drag show on West Texas A&M University’s campus over the objections of the school’s president, who deemed such performances “misogynistic” and mocking of womanhood, a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who before becoming a judge in Amarillo, Texas, was a Christian legal activist opposed to LGBTQ rights causes, on Thursday ruled that it was far from clear that drag shows were covered by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment’s protections for free expression.

The LGBTQ student group, Spectrum WT, sued in March after the school’s president, Walter Wendler, barred a charity drag show set for that month from going forward even though, he said, “the law of the land appears to require it.”

The group later moved that event off campus, but it continued to seek an injunction barring him from banning future events including a planned drag show in March 2024.

But Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, said Wendler was wrong that the law required him to allow drag shows, which can involve “sexualized conduct” that can be regulated to protect any children in an audience from “lewdness.”

The LGBTQ student group, Spectrum WT, sued in March after the school’s president, Walter Wendler, barred a charity drag show set for that month from going forward even though, he said, “the law of the land appears to require it.”

The group later moved that event off campus, but it continued to seek an injunction barring him from banning future events including a planned drag show in March 2024.

But Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, said Wendler was wrong that the law required him to allow drag shows, which can involve “sexualized conduct” that can be regulated to protect any children in an audience from “lewdness.”

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, which defended the university, did not respond to a request for comment.

Kacsmaryk gained national attention in April when he suspended approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. An appellate court overturned parts of that ruling, and the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the pill to remain on the market while appeals proceed.

His ruling on Thursday conflicted with recent decisions by judges in Utah, Tennessee, Montana and Texas blocking state and municipal laws banning drag shows.

Kacsmaryk in reaching his conclusion cited “older rules” of First Amendment case law that recognized an “outer limit” for expressive conduct.

He said those remain valid even under modern free speech jurisprudence, which “only intermittently” examines what is protected historically, in contrast to how the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms is interpreted.

The conservative-majority Supreme Court last year ruled that gun laws must be “consistent with this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation” to pass muster under the Second Amendment.

The case is Spectrum WT v. Wendler, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, No. 2:23-cv-00048.

For Spectrum WT: J.T. Morris of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

For the West Texas A&M University defendants: Charles Eldred of the Office of the Texas Attorney General