El Paso [El Paso Times]- As of Wednesday the lawyers for the owners of Tequila Sunrise and Jaguars Gold Club were threatening a lawsuit against the city of El Paso, asking for a temporary injunction to prevent the city’s revised sexually oriented business ordinance from taking effect this summer.

Jim Deegear, a San Antonio lawyer representing Tequila Sunrise strip club owner Jose Fong, said he hoped a court would ultimately find the revised ordinance to be unconstitutional under the Texas Constitution, as well as a violation of the First Amendment.

The ordinance approved at a May 8 City Council meeting requires semi-nude performers to stay at least 6 feet from patrons and prohibits anyone convicted of a sexually related crime in the previous five years from being licensed to own, operate or work in a sexually oriented business.

“A lot of city councils, I don’t think they think about the full ramifications of what they do when they do something like this,” Deegear said. “If it is enforced, it will likely put a lot of people out of work.

“Much like in San Antonio, if you put this many people out of work and on the streets, it has an economic impact.”

He said that Tequila Sunrise has about 30 employees plus many others who do business with the club.

First Amendment lawyer Luke Lirot of Florida is representing the Jaguars Gold Club strip club. Deegear said he and Lirot would work together, each arguing on behalf of both clubs.

“I know it will not work,” said Roger O’Dell, executive director of Model Cities El Paso. “This is an intimidation ploy by the SOB club owners and their lawyers into intimidating the city into not doing what’s best for the city of El Paso.”

City Attorney Charles McNabb said lawyers for the strip clubs threatened to challenge the new ordinance just before the City Council adopted it in May.

“We did a comprehensive ana lysis of other ordinances that have that language,” McNabb said, referring specifically to the 6-feet rule, which club owners have said will send their patrons to clubs outside the city limits.

“It has held up elsewhere in the country, and I think ours is defensible,” McNabb said.

Deegear said that after he filed the legal documents today, he would ask a judge to hear the clubs’ application for a temporary injunction. He said a trial would likely be set for next spring.

He intended to file the lawsuit Tuesday, but the County Courthouse was closed in observance of the Juneteenth holiday.