Stripper, adult establishments sue Florida government over new age restriction

I doubt there is a constitutional rights issue here. Many states do not allow servers under 21 because of alcohol.

The overreach maybe if the law truly does prohibit tradesmen aged 18-through just under 21 to perform work at the building, even during non-business hours. Does a 19 year old electrician apprentice really need government protection against wiring stage lights at 9 AM?

I’ve never understood how it was legal to allow someone under 21 to work in a place that serves alcohol.

Yes even a restaurant

@IwantHeronme, my issue with the 21 age restriction is that it's only used as a tool for federal government manipulation, not practical application. You can easily die in a war and take out loans at 18, but to do fun adult stuff it has to be 21. Why?

^ There needs to be a single age of majority. 16, 18 ,21, 25, 27. IDGAF, just pick one.

The lawsuit isn't about alcohol. The constitutional issue in question here, is the stripper's right to "express herself" under the First Amendment. Her claim is that there exist less restrictive means for Florida to combat human trafficking, and therefore the current plan is unconstitutionally restrictive.

It has already been held in a variety of previous cases that any State which wishes to curtail stripping must do so only within the strictest limits set on the curtailment of "fundamental rights", in this case, the right to freedom of speech. A fundamental right can only be curtailed if the law is "narrowly tailored" to bring about a "compelling" government interest (in this case, combating human trafficking, the government claims) AND there is no less restrictive means for bringing about that interest. (I think I got all those quotes right. Don't sue me, just correct if necessary, thanks.) So basically, it has to (1) be a direct link, between (a) no strippers under 21, and (b) less human trafficking, and (2) be the least invasive way to bring that about. Roughly, whatever goes or doesn't go for limiting newspapers, is the same for limiting strippers.

I'm not really on board with the idea that newspapers and strippers deserve similar protection. I can vaguely buy the idea, that stripping is sometimes a form of "self-expression" which does have some degree of First Amendment protection. But I find the link very tenuous, at best. Open political discourse about whether we should vote for Biden or Trump isn't often what's rolling off the tip of my tongue in the lap-dance area. Should stripping be considered as fundamental a right as the right for the NY Times to publish the Pentagon Papers (Nixon White House tapes)? Always seemed a rather iffy idea, to me.

Anyway, yes, there is indeed a constitutional issue here, self-expression. The courts have held that stripping is lumped in with that. Whether that issue SHOULD be engaged here, is another question. With the current judicial climate, I could see either the 11th Federal Circuit or the SCotUS overturning some precedent and holding more in favor of the government than previously, basically by dissociating stripping from newspapers and political speech a bit more, which still defining it as a TYPE of self-expression but not the MOST PROTECTED type.

Yah, dang, I wrote or typed a lot of that badly sorry. 11th circuit doesn't "overturn" SC precedent. My last clause should say "while" not "which." My last parenthetical should start "(or ...". Etc. But you get the gist.

I'd actually argue 18 should be the drinking age. Or raise the draft age to 21. They should all be the same for sure. I'm just saying as it stands I cannot understand it. And to exchange anything labeled as expression for money has to go outside the realm of just expression because you got paid. And I wonder if this can get to the level of federal overreach because this is a Florida state law.

When I was a teen and in college in the late 60/early 70s, the drinking age in my state was 18. I think it helped everybody develop their own habits and attitudes towards alcohol during the period when kids experiment with a lot of other stuff. In college, all it took was to watch a fraternity brother drink too much and puke for you to promise yourself you'd never go that far. The drinking age of 21 makes alcohol the "forbidden fruit" that, in my opinion, has led to a lot of young people crashing & burning.

👽 It Will B Interesting To See The Judgement On This One. I Can See Florida's View of Wanting To Cut Down On The Human Trafficking, But On The Other Hand, Some Strippers Are Loosing Their Jobs & They Need That Cash.
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This club does not serve alcohol or allow it on the premises