No relief for Ohio clubs.
shadowcat
Atlanta suburb
Court Upholds Ohio's 'No Touching' Strip Club Law
Back in 2007, Ohio put a law on the books that said your friendly neighborhood strippers and dancers could not touch customers and vice versa. Your $10 or $20 could buy you all the eyefuls of flesh that you want, but no over-the-pants dry humping, no frisky contact, and certainly no sex in the champagne room. Besides saving you the price of a new pair of pants, the law was also a beacon of sanitation.
Oh, and of course, as we told you back in February it's just simply not enforced, but that's not the issue here.
Strip club owners, however, pleaded that the law was a violation of their free speech rights. In addition to the no-touch provision, the 2007 edict also barred dancers from getting totally nude after midnight, and made adult bookstores and peep shows close from midnight to 6 a.m., which didn't really solve anything except forcing more men to walk the embarrassing path from their car to the blinking neon "Adult" sign during broad daylight.
A federal judge had previously ruled that the law was good-to-go, and that decision was backed up Wednesday when the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati voted to uphold the law, according to the AP.
So sorry, Ohioans, if you want to be touched, you'll have to continue to do it yourself.
Back in 2007, Ohio put a law on the books that said your friendly neighborhood strippers and dancers could not touch customers and vice versa. Your $10 or $20 could buy you all the eyefuls of flesh that you want, but no over-the-pants dry humping, no frisky contact, and certainly no sex in the champagne room. Besides saving you the price of a new pair of pants, the law was also a beacon of sanitation.
Oh, and of course, as we told you back in February it's just simply not enforced, but that's not the issue here.
Strip club owners, however, pleaded that the law was a violation of their free speech rights. In addition to the no-touch provision, the 2007 edict also barred dancers from getting totally nude after midnight, and made adult bookstores and peep shows close from midnight to 6 a.m., which didn't really solve anything except forcing more men to walk the embarrassing path from their car to the blinking neon "Adult" sign during broad daylight.
A federal judge had previously ruled that the law was good-to-go, and that decision was backed up Wednesday when the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati voted to uphold the law, according to the AP.
So sorry, Ohioans, if you want to be touched, you'll have to continue to do it yourself.
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16 comments
When in Columbus, avoid The House of Babes. Centerfolds isn't worthwhile either. Sam knows the third, but that one sucks also.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/…
J. Michael Murray, who represented the Ohio clubs and bookstores, was one of the attorneys appearing before the MO Supreme Court yesterday on the appeal of the MO SC law. Hmm...
As I mentioned in my post about the Sept 7th SC law hearing before the MO Supremes both laws [ Ohio & MO ] were based on a model developed by Tennessee attorney Scott Bergthold,whose practice is devoted to the drafting and defense of municipal adult business regulations. So court decisions that uphold key aspects of his model are disheartening because other jurisdictions may be encouraged to pass similar restrictions. [ cities in IN, IL, KY, TN etc, are you paying attention? ] Along with the TX supremes upholding the nude dancing pole tax this suggests an possible approach to regulate clubs into unprofitability.
MO’s law went further than Ohio’s because it totally banned nudity in “sexually-oriented†businesses, even businesses that didn’t serve alcohol. Topless dancing was restricted to non-alcohol clubs. And it went into great detail about minimally acceptable coverage of breasts and butts; still what’s acceptable is hotly debated...flesh colored pasties okay??
Like Ohio some MO cities and counties decided not to enforce the state law [ and be forced to defend it in court ] before the MO Supremes ruled.
Perhaps the MO law went too far in banning nudity altogether making the law too restrictive on freedom of expression. But one unappealing outcome is to allow the full expression of the art of the strip tease and full nudity in ‘no-touch’ clubs that don’t serve alcohol! lol.
You can see nudity but with NO touch or contact LDs!
Have you lived in my Home Town staxwell?
@gmd - that "State" of mind is called Canada :-)