9th Circuit lets Green v Miss USA stand

The Ninth Circuit has refused to rehear Green v Miss United States of America, where Anita Green, a transgendered woman, sued Miss USA for only allowing naturally born females to compete. The beauty pageant’s First Amendment right to decide the qualifications for its competition was upheld.

Green was trying to become Miss Oregon. The plaintiff’s complaint cited Oregon’s public accommodation law.

The Ninth Circuit agreed this was a civil rights case, but not what Green had in mind. The court found that applying Oregon’s law to Miss USA would violate the pageant’s civil rights, by imposing compelled speech.

One of the judges requested a vote on whether to rehear this case en banc. The matter failed to receive a majority of the votes.

And so the decision stands. Green tried to use the power of the state to force the Miss USA pageant to express a message contrary to what it desired to express. Our First Amendment rights won’t allow that.

Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of We were winning when I was there.