Tennessee- Video Culture is preparing to enter the counter-lawsuit filed against the city of Murfreesboro by 21 Up Movies & More for violating its constitutional rights of freedom of expression and equal rights under the law.
Motions were filed in Rutherford County Circuit Court asking the court to allow the independent video store that specializes in hard-to-find and foreign films to enter the lawsuit originally filed in early May.
21 Up Movies & More and Video Culture are suing for the right to remain open and keep their current inventory as well as for monetary damages.
The city of Murfreesboro originally filed a lawsuit against 21 Up owner Raymond Vincent Bohannon Feb. 14 stating the business located in an area zoned commercial highway is operating illegally; adult only video stores are only allowed in heavy industrial zones. The store located at 2209 NW Broad St. opened Sept. 21, 2006. It sells adult-themed videos, toys and lingerie.
Prior to filing the suit, the city of Murfreesboro had ordered 21 Up to close its doors.
Both 21 up Movies & More and Video Culture remain open. No court date has been set in the case.
Murfreesboro Planning Director Joseph Aydelott classified Video Culture as an “adults-only bookstore” after an inspection Jan. 19 for having more than 200 videos deemed adult-themed. The store located at the corner of Rutherford Boulevard and East Main Street is zoned commercial local.
Shelley Justiss, Video Culture owner, said then that she was shocked that her business was being referred to as an “adults-only bookstore.”
Only 2 percent of Video Culture’s inventory was classified as adult.
The 21 Up/Video Culture lawsuit states that the city of Murfreesboro’s attempts to more clearly define an adults-only bookstore” in an amended ordinance passed Sept. 28 was under researched and doesn’t show that defining an “adults-only bookstore” as one with 200 or more units of sexually explicit material has any negative secondary side effects.
The new ordinance states that “adult-oriented businesses are those where books, magazines, films or other merchandise that depicts or describes a form of sexual conduct or nudity make up “more than 20 percent of the floor area or more than 20 percent of the inventory by either units or value or more than 20 percent of revenues or a total inventory of more than 200 units of all such items.
The old ordinance defined an adult bookstore as an establishment where a substantial amount of the merchandise depicts or describes nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or sadomasochistic abuse.
The lawsuit filed by Nashville attorney Philip Elbert stated Video Culture is a victim of “selective enforcement” of the city of Murfreesboro’s ordinance pertaining to adult businesses.
Video Culture — in existence for 12 years and in its current location for two years — should be “grandfathered in” and have to comply with the pre-existing ordinance, the lawsuit stated.
Previously, the store was advised to keep its adult-themed films to less than 9 percent of the total inventory, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also states the city’s more stringent guidelines to define adult businesses are “arbitrary, unduly restrictive and not reasonably related to any legitimate purpose that would permit a municipality to classify or discriminate against a business based upon the content of movies rented or sold for viewing in the private homes of adult citizens.”
Prior language in the ordinance, the lawsuit stated, was similar to the city of Knoxville’s ordinance that was deemed “unconstitutionally vague” by the Tennessee Supreme Court in June 2005.
No study was completed, and there is no evidence that 21 Up has or is causing adverse “secondary effects” including increased crime or vagrants in the area, the lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit also states that there was no discussion in either Murfreesboro City Council or Planning Commission meetings that having 200 units adult merchandise was a violation even if that amount was less than 20 percent.