Restaurant Blocks City’s Restrictions on Playing Outdoor Music

A Florida city’s rules for restaurants that play live outdoor music likely violate the First Amendment, a federal court said.

A preliminary injunction preventing enforcement of some of the rules against restaurant Red, White & Booze LLC was proper because they are a content-based regulation on speech that isn’t sufficiently tailored to promote the city’s interest in noise regulation, Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle said Tuesday for the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

The city didn’t show how its total ban on non-string instruments, bass, and drums, and a “capacious limitation on amplification” was the least restrictive ...