CINCINNATI, OH —The Sixth Circuit Court Of Appeals has ruled that Bogart’s Lounge, a strip club located in Inkster, MI, can serve alcohol and have nude strippers working the poles at the same time. The state currently bans that, but allows topless-only clubs with licenses to sell alcohol to their patrons.Judge Julian Abele Cook Jr. ruled that Bogart’s can sell booze temporarily and that the state needs to provide the court with “better reasons for such a ban.”
For now, many local cities and counties have their own laws regulating nude dancing and alcohol and will likely try to enforce them if topless bars all make the transition to nude after the encouragement that the ruling provides them grabs hold, although those that go with that urge could face court challenge as well, lawyers involved said to the local press.
“It’s not a green light because there still may be local regulations,” said Robert Horvath, an attorney for Chix, a Detroit topless club that serves booze. “It’s not like the gates have been opened.”
Bogart’s lawyer, Michael Donaldson, said publicly that he will advise the club to wait on having dancers until after Cook issues his preliminary injunction giving the OK. Attorneys for other local clubs’ are all giving their clients similar advice.
The ruling itself stated that the state’s ban could be fine legally but that the state didn’t lay out its case well enough.
“We do not doubt that it is within the state’s police power to pass a nudity ban, to regulate places where liquor is sold, and to combat secondary effects that might be related to adult entertainment,” the ruling said. “But we are left to guess about the governmental interest at stake.”
The ruling also temporarily halts enforcement on state Liquor Control Commission rules prohibiting simulated sex acts in bars that feature dancing, which is good for clubs and individual dancers who can be fined for being too enthusiastic.
Strip club owners in the Detroit area have long been at a competitive disadvantage with those across the border in Windsor, Canada where fully nude dancing is permitted in bars, with no strings… or thongs… attached.
