Today's Ninth Circuit opinion arose across the street from my home.
A group of yoga instructors teach yoga for "free" (they accept donations, and most people contribute) on the beach -- specifically, Sunset Cliffs -- in San Diego. Typically, 30-60 people participate. The good thing about doing it on the beach, apart (of course) from the fantastic view, is that it doesn't cost the instructors anything, as opposed to having a yoga studio.
The City of San Diego didn't like that, so last year, passed an ordinance that said you can't do that, and started enforcing it. The yoga teachers sued and moved for a preliminary injunction, but lost.
Today, the Ninth Circuit reverses, holding that yoga's an expressive activity and that the ordinance is unconstitutionally content-based because it disallows (inter alia) yoga while allowing other types of expressive activity (e.g., teaching Shakespeare) on the beach.
So come on down. Free beach yoga. In a very pretty spot.
P.S. - It seems to me that the City could probably accomplish its desired objectives by instead imposing a "tax" on any expressive activities on the beach. Just say that any "donations" solicited in a public park on the beach are subject to City tax of 90% or so. Sure, there might be some enforcement difficulties. But I suspect that as long as it was content neutral, and applied to all expressive activities (very few of which request donations), that would probably survive constitutional scrutiny.
