Nashville, Tenn- Two Nashville adult book and video stores are suing to stay open longer. The establishments are challenging a state law that limits their hours of operation. This comes after Metro Police began a crackdown on the stores last summer.
Scotty Cross and his father Frank filed suit Wednesday to stop enforcment of a state law that limits the hours of their adult book and video stores.
Scotty Cross said, “Every other business, when they decide to stay open until 3 or 4 in the morning, they [aren’t] told when they…close.”
Adult stores like those belonging to the Crosses used to be open in Nashville around the clock. But this past summer Metro Police hand-delivered letters to store operators saying that would change. Undercover vice-officers began enforcing a previously unenforced 1995 law that limits adult store hours to 8 am-midnight and closes them on weekends and holidays. It wasn’t enforced before this year because Metro Police were waiting for the courts to meet all previous legal challenges.
Like the previous challenge in Knoxville, the Crosses want the law limiting their hours declared unconstitutional. Their suit asks that Attorney General Paul Summers, District Attorney Torry Johnson, and acting Metro Police Chief Deb Faulkner be kept from enforcing the law. All three are expected to vigorously fight the injunction.
