Come Into Litigation Warrior Pose: Ninth Circuit Strikes Down Restriction on Teaching Yoga in San Diego Shoreline Parks or Beaches
From today’s decision by Ninth Circuit Judge Holly Thomas, joined by Chief Judge Mary Murguia and Judge Gabriel Sanchez, in Hubbard v. City of San Diego:
The City of San Diego prohibits teaching yoga to four or more persons at any of the City’s shoreline parks or beaches…. [But t]eaching yoga is protected speech. The City’s prohibition on teaching yoga in shoreline parks is content based and fails strict scrutiny….
[T]he First Amendment protects teaching yoga. “An individual’s right to speak is implicated when information he or she possesses is subjected to ‘restraints on the way in which the information’ [is] disseminated.” And the First Amendment’s protections for speech encompass situations where a teacher’s “speech to [students] imparts a ‘specific skill’ or communicates advice derived from ‘specialized knowledge.'” Pac. Coast Horseshoeing Sch., Inc. v. Kirchmeyer (9th Cir. 2020) (quoting Holder v. Humanitarian L. Project (2010)) (discussing vocational training).
Because the Ordinance targets teaching yoga, it plainly implicates Hubbard and Baack’s First Amendment right to speak. The practice and philosophy of yoga “date back thousands of years,” deriving “from ancient Hindu scriptures.” The practice of yoga “teaches students to attain spiritual fulfillment through control of the mind and body.” A person who teaches yoga is communicating and disseminating information about this philosophy and practice through speech and expressive movements. Like vocational training classes, Hubbard’s and Baack’s classes aim to impart a specific skill and communicate advice derived from specialized knowledge. {Indeed, the act of teaching is protected speech even if the subject matter lacks philosophical value. “Most of what we say to one another lacks
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