The San Diego yoga ban was struck down by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on June 4, 2025, which ruled that teaching yoga is speech protected by the First Amendment and that the city’s ordinance was an unconstitutional content-based restriction. Free and donation-based classes have since returned to the city’s shoreline parks and beaches, and the full appellate court unanimously refused to reconsider the decision.
What the Ordinance Actually Prohibited
In February 2024, the San Diego City Council passed Ordinance No. 21775, which classified yoga instruction as a prohibited “service” activity when conducted for groups of four or more people at shoreline parks and beaches.1Courthouse News Service. San Diego Ban on Beach and Park Yoga Classes Overturned by Ninth Circuit The code defined “services” as the provision of intangible items to four or more people simultaneously and named yoga by example.2U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Hubbard v. City of San Diego, No. 24-4613
The city went further. It explicitly excluded “teaching yoga or exercise classes” from the code’s definition of “expressive activity,” which meant instructors could not claim the protections available to other forms of expression in public spaces. The prohibition applied whether classes were free or paid. Park rangers told instructors that no yoga classes of any kind were allowed on shoreline parks, even at no charge.2U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Hubbard v. City of San Diego, No. 24-4613
Other instructional activities involving similar physical movement, including tai chi, remained permitted. That selectivity is what made the rule especially vulnerable on appeal.
Two instructors challenged the ordinance in June 2024. Steven Hubbard, known locally as “NamaSteve,” had taught donation-based classes on Pacific Beach for nearly two decades and was briefly detained by park rangers and cited for “unlawful use of a public park” while leading a class.3FOX 5 San Diego. NamaSteve Detained for Leading Yoga Class in Spite of City Crackdown Amy Baack had run free weekly classes at Sunset Cliffs Natural Park since 2021, sometimes drawing up to 50 participants, and was barred from continuing when the new rules took effect in March 2024.4Los Angeles Times. Yoga in San Diego Restricted
U.S. District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo denied their request for a preliminary injunction on July 12, 2024, finding that teaching yoga was not protected speech and that the ordinance was content-neutral.2U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Hubbard v. City of San Diego, No. 24-4613 The instructors appealed.
Why the Ninth Circuit Reversed
A three-judge panel unanimously reversed on June 4, 2025, in an opinion by Judge Holly A. Thomas, joined by Chief Judge Mary H. Murguia and Judge Gabriel P. Sanchez.2U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Hubbard v. City of San Diego, No. 24-4613 The court’s reasoning moved in three steps.
First, teaching yoga is protected speech. The court held that yoga instruction communicates and disseminates information about an ancient philosophy and practice through both spoken words and expressive movements, and that teachers impart specific skills and specialized knowledge protected by the First Amendment regardless of the subject’s philosophical value.2U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Hubbard v. City of San Diego, No. 24-4613 The panel cited Pacific Coast Horseshoeing School v. Kirchmeyer among other precedents for that principle.5Metropolitan News-Enterprise. Yoga Instruction Protected Under First Amendment
Second, the parties agreed that San Diego’s shoreline parks are traditional public forums, the setting that gets the strongest free speech protection.
Third, and decisively, the ordinance was content-based. The city’s own code named yoga as an excluded activity, barring it from the definition of “expressive activity” while allowing instruction in other subjects. Under Reed v. Town of Gilbert, content-based laws are presumptively unconstitutional and must satisfy strict scrutiny, meaning the government has to show the law is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling interest.2U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Hubbard v. City of San Diego, No. 24-4613
The city could not meet that test. According to the panel, San Diego offered “no explanation as to how teaching yoga would lead to harmful consequences” to public safety or enjoyment, “or even what those consequences might be.”6NBC San Diego. Appeals Court Rules San Diego Yoga Ban Unconstitutional The court also called the ordinance “hopelessly underinclusive” because it left other activities involving similar physical movement untouched, and it faulted the city for failing to explain why existing rules governing large groups and expressive-activity areas were not enough.2U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Hubbard v. City of San Diego, No. 24-4613
The panel remanded with instructions to enter a preliminary injunction for Hubbard and Baack. It did not rule on the broader facial challenge to the ordinance, finding the record underdeveloped on that question.2U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Hubbard v. City of San Diego, No. 24-4613
San Diego’s Rehearing Bid Failed
The city petitioned for rehearing en banc, asking the full Ninth Circuit to reconsider. On September 29, 2025, the court unanimously rejected the request. No judge on the appellate court voted to rehear the case.7San Diego Union-Tribune. Ninth Circuit Court Unanimously Rejects San Diego’s Attempt to Reinstate Beach Yoga Ban The court’s mandate issued on October 7, 2025, formally returning the case to the district court.8CourtListener. Hubbard, et al. v. City of San Diego, et al.
On remand, the district court entered the preliminary injunction as directed, barring the city from using its municipal code to prohibit the plaintiffs from teaching yoga classes or lecturing in San Diego shoreline parks.9Courthouse News Service. Hubbard v. City of San Diego District Court Ruling
What the Ruling Means for Yoga in San Diego Right Now
Free and donation-based yoga has resumed at San Diego’s shoreline parks and beaches. Amy Baack was back at Sunset Cliffs two days after the appellate decision, teaching an outdoor class of roughly 45 people on June 6, 2025. Hubbard described the local yoga community as “absolutely ecstatic.”10Times of San Diego. Yoga Is Baack at the Beach and Shoreline Parks Supporters have noted the practical stakes for people on fixed incomes or with disabilities who rely on free outdoor instruction rather than studio classes.p>
A few limits are worth understanding. The preliminary injunction protects the named plaintiffs from enforcement under the challenged provisions; the Ninth Circuit did not resolve the broader facial challenge to the ordinance. And the ruling addressed teaching yoga as expression, not commercial permitting generally: it does not say every group activity in a shoreline park is exempt from regulation, only that the city cannot single out yoga instruction the way this ordinance did.
The dispute is also not fully over. The city has issued subpoenas seeking financial records and GPS data for both Hubbard and Baack, in what appears to be an effort to characterize their classes as a commercial enterprise rather than protected expression.11Times of San Diego. Fight Over Free Yoga San Diego Intensifies Hubbard and Baack have filed a separate state lawsuit tied to a citation issued to Hubbard for livestreaming yoga classes from his home, on the theory that the classes could be viewed from a public park.12Courthouse News Service. San Diego Yoga Instructors Win Partial Victory in First Amendment Case
For now, the practical bottom line is straightforward. Teaching yoga on San Diego’s beaches and shoreline parks is legal again, the Ninth Circuit has said so, and the full appellate court declined to disturb that answer.