Missouri – from www.columbiatribune.com – A Cole County judge last week threw out a lawsuit filed by members of Missouri’s adult entertainment industry against a state law enacted last year that places additional regulations on their businesses.

In a Jan. 27 ruling, Judge Jon Beetem [pictured] struck down a constitutional challenge to the law by the adult entertainment industry and ruled in favor of the state.

The law, which was passed in the 2010 session of the Missouri General Assembly and put into effect in August, limits the hours adult-oriented businesses can operate each day and prohibits nudity and the consumption alcohol in strip clubs.

Dick Snow, a plaintiff in the lawsuit and the owner of Bazooka Show Girls in Kansas City, said the next move for the adult entertainment industry could be an appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court — which is he where he felt the conflict over the law would end up since “the day it was passed.”

Angelina Spencer, executive director of the Association of Club Executives, a national advocacy group for adult-oriented businesses, said legislatures in Kansas, Tennessee and West Virginia have this year proposed bills similar to Missouri’s.

Since a similar law was passed in Ohio in 2007, the language of the law has been proposed in bills in 22 other state legislatures.

Spencer said the passage of more laws such as the one passed in Missouri could have a snowball effect that harms other forms of expression.

Additional regulations for the adult entertainment industry, Spencer said, “will eventually trickle down to other forms of art, media, journalism.”