MEMPHIS, TN —A new ordinance outlaws alcohol from being served in Memphis, TN strip clubs, effective January 1st. Because this butts the city out of the clubs, it has created a new “Sexually Oriented Business Board,” which will oversee permits for employees of adult businesses at strip clubs and adult video stores.The board will oversee the permit system for workers. Any worker with a criminal background can be denied a permit or have his or her existing permit pulled. Any club or store owner must get a permit from the same board.
The strip clubs now are regulated by the Memphis Alcohol Commission, also known as the “beer board,” which can revoke or suspend a club’s license to serve beer or liquor for violations.
Occasionally, police will cite clubs for violating rules barring contact between dancers and patrons. Officers will testify at the twice-monthly commission meetings and the board will then make its decisions about whether to issue a suspension of the beer permit. Club owners will be able to appeal to Shelby County Circuit Court, where they might be fined.
Chattanooga attorney Scott D. Bergthold, who helped draft the Shelby County ordinance, predicts a court challenge from the clubs and stores. He drafted a similar ordinance in Chattanooga and defended it and others against court challenges by adult businesses.
Based on other court cases Bergthold says he has been involved in, he expects club owners to assert that any attempt to regulate sexually oriented businesses must come with detailed studies that connect the businesses to problems such as crime and public safety.
“The courts uniformly have rejected that theory that you have to do a scientific study and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he said to the local media. “Rather they’ve said you can, as a legislative body, rely on any evidence that is reasonably believed to be relevant.”
Here’s hoping Bergthold is wrong.
