{"id":39119,"date":"2023-11-18T13:04:17","date_gmt":"2023-11-18T18:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=39119"},"modified":"2023-11-18T13:04:22","modified_gmt":"2023-11-18T18:04:22","slug":"hamburger-marys-owner-says-were-fighting-the-fight-because-it-has-to-be-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/11\/18\/hamburger-marys-owner-says-were-fighting-the-fight-because-it-has-to-be-done\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamburger Mary\u2019s owner says \u201cWe\u2019re fighting the fight because it has to be done\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An Orlando restaurant owner who filed a lawsuit against the State of Florida is relishing in a legal victory granted by the highest court in the land.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In May, the owner of Hamburger Mary\u2019s Orlando filed a lawsuit arguing a new state law banning children from sexually explicit adult live performances was unconstitutional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, the Supreme Court denied the state\u2019s request to allow immediate enforcement of the law as a legal battle continues to play out in the lower courts. It was a victory for Hamburger Mary\u2019s owner John Paonessa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paonessa said he never expected his restaurant to become the focus of a legal fight that would make its way to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His restaurant often hosts drag shows and comedy events. He believes his livelihood was threatened by the new state law titled the \u201cProtection of Children Act.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The act stops children from going to any shows that are considered sexually explicit and obscene based on the age of the child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law also states any establishment allowing children into sexually explicit adult live shows could have their license and permits pulled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While drag isn\u2019t mentioned in the text of the law, the Governor has said it\u2019s included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Paonessa filed a lawsuit arguing the state law is too vague, violates first amendment rights, and could have a chilling effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re fighting the fight because it has to be done,\u201d said Paonessa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida State University Professor of Law Michael Morley spoke to the media about the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morley specializes in constitutional law and explains this case faces layers of legal complexities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Morley, a decision about whether the law will be upheld could be at least a year away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morley explained, after Paonessa filed the lawsuit, lower courts found Hamburger Mary\u2019s case was strong enough to grant a preliminary injunction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It meant Hamburger Mary\u2019s and other similar venues didn\u2019t have to worry about new state rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cThe whole point of a preliminary injunction is to kind of freeze things in place, while the court, the district court ultimately decides is this law actually unconstitutional,\u201d said Morley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the months that followed, the State asked the Supreme Court to allow the law to be enforced for everyone except for Hamburger Mary\u2019s while the case was under appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday, the conservative majority high court voted 6-3 to keep the preliminary injunction in place through the appeal process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know which way it was gonna go,\u201d said Paonessa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Supreme Court denied the State of Florida\u2019s request to allow immediate enforcement, the legal fight continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paonessa said he\u2019s confident this will end in victory for him and other drag venues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is happening is just entertainment like the theatre or anywhere else you take your kids,\u201d said Paonessa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the Governor\u2019s office also said they are confident that their law will be upheld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesperson sent the following Statement to the media:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile we are disappointed in this particular ruling, the Supreme Court did not opine on the merits of our law protecting children from sexualized adult live performances. This case is still pending appeal at the 11th Circuit, and we expect this law to be upheld on the merits.\u201d – Jeremy Redfern, Press Secretary for Governor DeSantis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Orlando restaurant owner who filed a lawsuit against the State of Florida is relishing in a legal victory granted by the highest court in the land. In May, the owner… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[6788],"class_list":["post-39119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-hamburger-marys-owner-says-were-fighting-the-fight-because-it-has-to-be-done"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}