Legal News

On Strip Bars and the Constitution

By Ashby Jones

As far as “sin taxes” go, it seems fairly clear that governments can levy them on cigarettes and booze. Earlier this year, after all, a new federal tax pushed the cost of a pack of smokes to over $9 here in NYC.

But may a state enact a tax on a different kind of “sin” — the kind committed by patrons of strip bars?

On Thursday, the issue was argued before the Texas Supreme Court. The main concept up for debate: whether Texas’ “pole tax” on strip clubs’ patrons runs afoul of the First Amendment’s freedom of expression. Click here for the WSJ story, from reporter Leslie Eaton.

The case arrives after rulings from two lower courts, which found the law, which imposes a $5-per-fee visit on strip clubs, unconstitutional. The rationale: that singling out a particular business based on the content of its expression — like “exotic dancing” — violates the First Amendment.

Texas disagreed, and filed an appeal. The state argues that it isn’t levying the fee to discourage pole dancing. Instead, the state says, by deterring people from going to clubs, the fee would help reduce rapes that it claimed are linked to drinking alcohol while watching dancers disrobe.

The law’s chief sponsor, Ellen Cohen, a Democrat from Houston who is former director of the Houston Area Women’s Center, said in a brief filed with the court that her aim was to combat sexual assault.

But linking “the club industry and some nefarious behavior…is “very offensive to owners of clubs,” said Dave Manack, editor of ED Publications of Clearwater, Fla., which publishes the magazine Exotic Dancer.

The Texas ruling could transcend the state. Lawyers for strip clubs, as well as those advising cash-strapped states and cities interested in imposing “sin taxes” to raise revenue, are watching the case closely.

“I think everyone was watching Texas, saying let’s see what happens,” said Angelina Spencer, manager of the Association of Club Executives in Washington.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 26, 2010 (boomark / email).