Tennessee's anti-drag law runs afoul of the First Amendment

+ EPA primed to regulate 'forever chemicals' US Edition - Today's top story: Why Tennessee's law limiting drag performances likely violates the First Amendment [View in browser]( US Edition | 7 March 2023 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( My job is to commission and edit stories about democracy in America, especially threats to democracy in America. I’m pretty busy these days. I could spend almost all of my time working solely on stories about challenges to free speech in the U.S., as legislatures, school committees, library boards and other groups have moved to limit freedom of expression in one form or another. On March 2, 2023, [Tennessee became the first state to enact a law restricting drag performances](. Mark Satta, a legal scholar at Wayne State University, explains that the law “appears likely to run afoul of the First Amendment,” although lawmakers have tried to do an end-around by insinuating “that drag performances might be part of a category of speech exempt from the First Amendment protection: legally defined obscenity.” Satta’s piece is a master class in what the First Amendment means – and how it’s under siege in states across the U.S. Also today: - [How the American Medical Association failed to live up to its diversity pledge]( - [The pernicious effects of caste systems aren’t relegated to South Asia]( - [HBO’s “The Last of Us” puts a spotlight on fungi in flour]( Naomi Schalit Democracy Editor Protesters against a bill restricting drag shows march from a rally outside of the Tennessee Capitol in Nashville on Feb. 14, 2023. 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