The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that repressive regulations prohibiting nude dancing and restrict other kinds of adult entertainment don't violate the Missouri or U.S. constitutions.
The restrictions are not content-based limitations on
speech but rather are aimed at limiting the negative secondary effects of sexually oriented businesses on the health, welfare and safety of Missouri residents, the court claimed in its unanimous ruling.
The state's adult entertainment industry
sued last year to block the law's requirements. Industry experts say business has been down over 75% at Missouri strip clubs.
The law, enacted earlier this year, prohibits full nudity at sexually oriented businesses, and mandates early closing at
midnight. The law also cuts off alcohol at those businesses and prohibits semi-nude (female breasts exposed below the nipple or uncovered male or female buttocks ) employees from touching customers. It also says stages on which seminude dancers perform
must be at least six feet from customers and at least 18 inches high.
State Senator Matt Bartle's eight-year mean minded quest to crack down on Missouri strip clubs finally succeeded this week.
The state Senate voted 27-4 for legislation that will ban full nudity and prohibit adult businesses from selling alcohol.
The clubs also would have to close between midnight and 6 a.m.
Most human beings understand that if you mix alcohol and women dancing in the nude, that's a tough combo, said Bartle: Bad things happen.
The vote, combined with
the House's 118-28 vote earlier, sends the bill to Governor Jay Nixon. A spokesman for the Democratic governor said he was inclined to sign it. He is generally supportive of tighter restrictions on these types of businesses, spokesman Jack
Cardetti said.
Opponents said if enacted, the new law will almost certainly result in a court challenge. They said the law will hurt all strip clubs and hundreds, and maybe thousands, of workers will lose their jobs.
Under the proposal, the
adult entertainment industry would undergo major restrictions. Juice bars that don't sell alcohol, but present nude dancers would be outlawed. Semi-nude dancers would have to stay at least 6 feet away from patrons and no touching would be
allowed.
All that lap dancing stuff, that's gone, Bartle said.
Adult businesses could not operate within 1,000 feet of a school, church, day-care facility, library, park, residence or another adult business. Operators of any adult
establishment would have to have an unobstructed view…of every area of the premises.
The bill's passage came on the second to last day of the 2010 session and represented Bartle's last shot at passing a bill because he is retiring from the
Senate.