« The Daily Memo - 7/19/06 |
Main
| (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction! »
Grope ‘Em If You Got ‘Em
For almost as long as their has been titties and beer, there have been entrepreneurial misanthropes who have tried to make money off the best of both world’s combination, only to be …er … cock blocked by local governments. Still, strip-bar owners refuse to go down without a fight, and so it goes that the Third Circuit was asked to rule on the constitutionality of prohibiting lap-dances in a liquor-licensed establishment. An Atlantic City tavern argued that the local ordinance, which prohibited “any lewdness or immoral activity” on liquor-licensed premises was vague, overbroad, and shouldn’t be applied to lap-dancers who wear bikini tops and bottoms. The Moulin Rouge bar had been hit with a series of fines after police noticed dancers were straddling and grinding on the bar’s patrons; the lawyers argued that those erotic movements should have been afforded First Amendment protections.
The Third Circuit, however, disagreed, holding that the Jersey regulation was not overbroad, because it applied only to establishments that sold alcohol, which were rightly under the control of the state’s Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Moreover, the 3rd Circuit ruled that the bar’s constitutional challenge failed because it did not prohibit freedom of expression outright, only in bars that sold liquor, where presumably men could get drunk enough to forget about their wives.
And so it’s back to the drawing board for businessmen trying to find a loophole large enough for a pair of 36 DD’s to fit through. And for the bar’s patrons, I suppose it’s back to the drunken tryst with your inflatable dolls.
