From Red, White & Booze, LLC v. City of St. Pete Beach, decided yesterday by Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle (M.D. Fla.):

A city-issued permit allows a restaurant to play outdoor music using only string instruments and allows amplified music for only a few hours each weekend…. Because I conclude that the permit's prohibition of certain kinds of instruments is a content-based restriction on First Amendment-protected expression and the city fails to show that the conditions survive strict scrutiny, I preliminarily enjoin the city from enforcing parts of the permit….

Some excerpts from the court's long analysis:

[1.] The First Amendment protects music, including instrumental music…. [I]nstrumental music can be communicative in at least two ways apart from lyrics ….

First, instrumental music

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