Posts under ‘First Amendment’

“Outrage over a 20-foot, anatomically correct stallion outside a strip club in rural northern Mississippi could lead to a new law allowing counties to regulate such establishments,” begins this article by Shelia Byrd in BusinessWeek. According to the article, the bill would give Mississippi’s 82 counties the option to draft regulations for strip clubs that [...]

Location schmocation.
A couple of items in the news. First, a provocative piece from the talented David Hudson of the First Amendment Center, entitled “Obscenity online: Do we need a national standard?”
Second, the Iowa Court of Appeals delivered this decision yesterday. Iowa charged Clarence Judy, owner of a strip club in Hamburg, Iowa, with three counts of public indecent [...]

Today the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an obscenity conviction but …
The trial of Paul F. Little a.k.a. Max Hardcore included allegations of (1) improper comments by the government during closing argument; (2) improper jury instructions; (3) improper handling of juror irregularities; (4) failure of the judge to recuse herself; and (5) errors in sentencing. [...]

A pair of decisions to start the week.
“The town of Clarksville’s legal case against Theatair X was dismissed Monday as a judge ruled the town’s ordinance is not valid and therefore cannot be enforced,” reports the NewsAndTribune.com (which, oddly enough, is a “.net” Web site)  here. The Clarksville Town Court held that the ordinance regulating sexually oriented businesses [...]

Taking her cue from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in an order issued last week from the U.S. District Court (Southern Disitrct of Indiana), Judge Sarah Evans Barker writes:
[I]n order to satisfy the burden explicated by the Seventh Circuit, the City must essentially make two showings: first, that adult entertainment businesses lacking facilities for [...]

The Test: As the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida describes it, the plaintiffs’ “constitutional challenge focuses solely on the third part of the Renton test and the second part of the O’Brien test. The two inquiries, whether the ordinance ‘is designed to serve’ a substantial government interest (Renton) and whether the ordinance ‘furthers’ [...]

Tandem opinions from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals were released yesterday. 
In the first case, Entertainment Productions, Inc. and others sued Shelby County, challenging the constitutionality of the Tennessee Adult-Oriented Establishment Registration Act on First Amendment grounds. EP argued four points: First, the definitions of “adult cabaret,” “adult-oriented establishment,” and “adult entertainment” render the Act unconstitutionally overbroad; and [...]

Chicago Joe’s continues to give the Village of Broadview — and its Board of Trustees — all it can handle.
The self-proclaimed “Tea Room” applied for a special use permit to offer adult entertainment. Denied. A federal suit followed, alleging, among other things, that the zoning code violated the First Amendment. In the latest round, Judge Gottschall held that [...]

A superb opinion from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals just came down. It begins, “Indianapolis revised its adult business ordinances in 2003. These amendments expanded the definition of ‘adult entertainment business’ to include any retail outlet that devotes 25% of more of its space or inventory to, or obtains at least 25% of its [...]

A little over a week ago, the Michigan Court of Appeals issued this (majority) opinion. A divided court (2-1) affirmed that Erie Township did not violate the rights of Alcatraz Industries, Inc. by adopting an ordinance restricting adult entertainment establishments to C-2 zoning districts. Among other restrictions, the ordinance requires an adult business to obtain a [...]