Make that a 1-6 record in the courts this year for adult entertainment.
UNION TWP, Ohio. - A nude dance club will be notified soon that the township wants it closed by midnight, now that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to consider the club's claims of unconstitutional government restrictions.
Déjà Vu wanted justices to review a federal appeals court decision in June that upheld rules requiring strip clubs in the township to close no later than midnight, to apply for operating licenses and to provide information about employees, including birth dates and job descriptions.
Déjà Vu, part of a national chain, sued the township, saying the regulations were an unconstitutional infringement on free speech.
The case was a test for an appeals court that has grown more conservative with President Bush's appointees. Five dissenting judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit agreed that it was unconstitutional for the township to require Déjà Vu to close earlier than other bars. All the dissenters were appointed by Democrats. The court upheld the regulations, 7-5, on grounds that communities have the right to restrict hours to deter drinking, prostitution or other problems.
The litigation wound through the courts for six years until the Supreme Court refused earlier this month to hear the appeal by the club.
The township has not tried to enforce any of the restrictions at the Mount Carmel club, on Old Ohio 74, which does not serve alcohol.
Officials wanted to wait until the issues were resolved in the courts, township administrator Ken Geis said Monday.
"We were still waiting for some finality," he said.
The club now stays open to 4 a.m., he said. Soon, township lawyers will notify the club that it must close by midnight.
"There really are some negative impacts (on the surrounding community) when these businesses stay open that late," Geis said.
Police said after the township's legal victory in June that they welcomed it but that criminal activity outside Déjà Vu had been no different than outside other clubs. The most common offenses recently, they said, were open liquor container violations and underage drinking in the parking lot.
The club's national counsel in Lansing, Mich., Brad Shafer, could not be reached for comment Monday.
Citizens for Community Values, a local group that opposes sexually oriented businesses, issued a statement welcoming the Supreme Court decision.
"This is a huge victory with national implications," CCV president Phil Burress [pictured] said in a statement. "Communities have been waiting for a decision that would define just how far they could go in regulating adult businesses."
CCV officials hope the top court's ruling helps ensure that the restrictions originated in Union Township are spread throughout the state via the Community Defense Act, a bill pending in the state legislature.
The act would allow municipalities to regulate the hours of sexually oriented business as well as the distance between performers and patrons. The measure, House Bill 23, passed the House in April and remains in a Senate committee. The bill is CCV's top legislative priority.
