Legal News

Odd News Roundup: ?Pole Tax? Shot Down; Kickback Prof Gets 3 Years

By Dan Slater

The Law Blog missed out on a couple of crazy legal stories of late. Here are two law-of-the-weird items to consume with your coffee and scone.

Stripping Ruled Form of Expression: A state judge in Texas ruled that the state’s $5 “Pole Tax” — a fee that strip clubs collected from patrons and donated to sexual assault-prevention programs and health care for the uninsured — was unconstitutional. The judge ruled that the law singled “out business activity involving expression that, while politically unpopular, is nevertheless protected by the First Amendment.” According to the judge: “There is no evidence that combining alcohol with nude erotic dancing causes dancers to be uninsured, that any dancer is in fact uninsured, or that any uninsured dancer could qualify for assistance.” Here’s a report from FindLaw.

Peter Nolan and Stewart Whitehead, of Winstead PC, represented the strip clubs. James Todd and Mishell Neeland represented the government.

Professor Supplements Salary: In what a German judge called “a very severe case of corruption,” an unidentified professor at Hannover University (pictured) was found to have received kickback payments from his advisees.

Judge Peter Peschka sentenced the professor to three years in prison for accepting $240,000 to serve as a faculty adviser to 68 doctorate students between 1998 and 2005. According to this AP report, court documents say an agency brokered kickback deals for him to serve as the students’ adviser. From the Perhaps-He-Should-Have-Hired-a-PR-Guy Department: The professor reportedly said he needed the money to renovate his Hamburg mansion.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 08, 2008 (boomark / email).