Las Vegas- The owner of a Las Vegas swingers club has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to continue offering Internet access at his business. The Green Door owner Joseph Cavaretta says got two summonses in February from the Clark County Business License Department accusing him of operating an adult theater without a license.
The official who issued the summonses said he was able to access adult material through a computer at the business. A lawyer for the business says the case has far-reaching implications -- because he says it looks like the government's trying to regulate what people can see on the Internet.
Cavaretta says people over age 18 can pay a fee to use computers at his club at the Commercial Center on East Sahara Avenue. The lawsuit filed this week says the computers are in cubicles like telephone booths -- and are private.
Editorial, Las Vegas Review Journal: Someone over at the county -- apparently an enforcement agent in the Business License Department -- has concocted a creative method of pestering a local "swingers" club.
According to a lawsuit filed in federal court by the owner of the Green Door, twice last February the county cited the business for operating an adult theater without a license.
But here's the kicker: The suit claims the agent who issued the misdemeanor citations said he did so because he was able to view porn on the computers the Green Door provides so its patrons may access the Internet.
County officials are saying little. On Tuesday, the line was that the suit is "without merit." But if the "I saw naked women on the Internet" objection was indeed the basis for the citations, the Business License Department had better hire scores more compliance officers, because they'll have a lot of work to do.
"I really don't think the county understands the implications of (its) actions," said Allen Lichtenstein, the attorney for the Green Door who also does work for the local ACLU. "This is very far reaching, because it suggests the government has the right to regulate access to the Internet solely on the basis of what possible content a person might conceivably access."
Mr. Lichtenstein likely gives county officials too much credit.
The Green Door passes itself off as a sex club, where consenting adults can enter for a fee and are then free to engage in lascivious activity. It also provides booths where patrons may pay to go online and view what they please -- read: porn.
In short, it's the kind of business that government officials, elected and otherwise, can't stand and will go to great lengths to get rid off. Far from being some "far reaching" effort on the part of the county to set a precedent, the citations are probably just a clumsy attempt to harass the club's owner.
Either way, the county had better prepare to take it on the chin in court. Adults can surf the Web at a number of commercial establishments -- and also at public libraries. Are these places in violation of the law if they are located outside the county's "adult overlay zone"? Give us a break.
"It's probably the first time the government has tried to regulate Internet access as an adult business," Mr. Lichtenstein noted.
And, we hope, the last. But don't bet on it.
