Federal appeals court rules San Diego’s controversial yoga ban unconstitutional
Story by David Garrick, The San Diego Union-Tribune
A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that San Diego’s controversial crackdown on beach yoga classes is unconstitutional and that city officials must immediately allow the classes to resume.
The ruling says teaching yoga is protected speech under the First Amendment, and that city officials have failed to show how the classes threaten public safety or prevent enjoyment of the city’s shoreline parks.
Steve Hubbard, one of the yoga teachers who sued the city over the ban, said Wednesday by phone that he’s proud to have successfully challenged it.
“It feels good to be vindicated,” said Hubbard, who has taught yoga classes at Palisades Park in Pacific Beach for 18 years. “We knew this should be the outcome the whole time.”
The 19-page ruling by the U.S. Ninth District Court of Appeals overturns a lower court ruling that said the First Amendment doesn’t protect yoga and that the city’s ban is valid.
The ruling includes a preliminary injunction against the city sought by Hubbard and co-plaintiff Amy Baack, an Ocean Beach yoga teacher, when they filed their suit in June 2024.
The appeals court said an injunction, which prevents the city from enforcing the ban while the case works its way through the courts, is appropriate because of the high likelihood Hubbard and Baack will eventually win.
“The City has demonstrated no plausible connection between Hubbard and Baack teaching yoga and any threat to public safety and enjoyment in the City’s shoreline parks,” the ruling says.
City officials haven’t decided whether to appeal Wednesday’s ruling. They are evaluating the decision and considering possible next steps, said Ibrahim Ahmed, a spokesperson for City Attorney Heather Ferbert.
Hubbard has consistently said he believes city officials singled out yoga and targeted his classes, which often draw large crowds.
The ruling agrees that the city treated yoga differently than other activities without justification.
“The Ordinance does not prohibit teaching various other subjects to four or more people in shoreline parks, including those that, like yoga, potentially involve physical movement,” the ruling says. “Nor does the City even attempt to explain how teaching yoga presents a greater threat to public safety and enjoyment than teaching other subjects.”
The crackdown on beach and park yoga began in spring 2024 after San Diego made a series of complex amendments to a much wider city law governing street vendors.
When city officials analyzed which vendors were eligible for free-speech protections, yoga didn’t make the cut.
City officials say yoga is a commercial activity not protected by free-speech rights. They group yoga with massage, dog training, fitness classes, equipment rentals and the staging of picnics, bonfires or other activities.
They say the crackdown on those activities has been motivated by concerns about public access to beaches and parks, where commercial activities sometimes block pathways, impede views and take up scarce space.
City officials say that while analyzing the street vendor amendments, they became aware that many residents were quietly upset about the increasing commercial use of their favorite parks and beaches — including yoga classes.
That prompted officials to crack down on activities they contend have been technically illegal for years.
Hubbard said Wednesday that two of the 10 citations he’s been issued under the crackdown have been in the past few days. That’s despite him shifting his classes to YouTube many months ago.
Because the YouTube classes draw a crowd to the park where people watch Hubbard on their phones and other devices, rangers have continued to fine him based on concerns about those crowds.
Hubbard teaches classes Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9 a.m., and Saturdays and Sundays at 10 a.m.
On Wednesday, he thanked his hundreds of supporters for sticking by him during the fight.
“I’m so grateful that they never stopped supporting me this whole time,” he said.
In January, Hubbard filed a second lawsuit in state court arguing that yoga is an expressive activity and that the city must therefore remove it from the list of commercial services banned at shoreline parks and beaches.
That lawsuit is still making its way through the courts.
©2025 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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My best portrait. Photo credit: LT
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