Marietta, Georgia- The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from two Marietta adult entertainment stores that were shut down by the city more than a year ago for selling sex toys.

“It’s been challenged all the way,” Marietta Mayor Bill Dunaway said Thursday. “Marietta’s a much better place without those stores. Let Atlanta have them.” City officials said the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the appeal was a victory for Marietta’s detailed adult entertainment ordinance and would attract the attention of cities across the nation.

“I don’t know how many copies of that ordinance that we’ve sent to other municipalities,” Dunaway said.

City Attorney Doug Haynie said Marietta’s decision to revoke the stores’ business licenses survived three appeals in state and federal courts, including the Georgia Supreme Court.

But an attorney for the Marietta stores said the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, announced earlier this week, wouldn’t have much impact elsewhere.

Alan Begner, who represents adult stores all over the state, said Georgia had an outright ban on the sale of sex toys but the law had been selectively enforced.

“For some reason, Marietta decided to go to war,” Begner said. “Sex toys are illegal in Georgia but are sold widely because it’s a stupid law and nobody cares.”

Marietta shut down the stores for violation of that state law and local ordinances. The two stores, Inserection and Waterpipe World, are both located on Cobb Parkway. Marietta shut down those and a third store in July 2003.

Beyond the state law, local governments in Georgia have an array of ordinances dealing with sex shops, strip clubs, massage parlors and adult theaters.

Governments use zoning, revenue limits and “community standards” to control the adult industry without banning it outright. Sexually explicit material is protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Marietta’s 11-page ordinance covering adult entertainment establishments allows adult stores to operate, but under strict guidelines.

Gwinnett County recently increased regulation of massage parlors moonlighting as brothels. This followed a similar crackdown in DeKalb and Fulton counties.

“My observation about all this is, it makes a city or a government look foolish when they demand that sex toys not be sold to their citizens,” Begner said. “It makes the citizens of Marietta have to drive a lot farther . . . to satisfy their adult shopping needs.”

Begner said a more interesting question was whether Marietta would try to stop other adult shops from opening within the city limits.

“What I think is, these three stores are gone for good,” he said. “One of the questions that’s going to arise is, will the city try to ban stores in the future at another location.”

Dunaway said the city was open for business for all law-abiding merchants.

“There’s an ordinance there, and [adult stores may operate] if they follow the ordinance,” he said.