CHICAGO, IL – The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a Chicago law that prohibits the sale of alcohol at strip clubs is not unconstitutional, and does not go beyond the city’s right to regulate clubs in furtherance of preventing negative “secondary effects” that purportedly stem from serving alcohol at topless bars.Writing for the majority, Justice Lloyd Karmeier stated that such secondary effects can be “serious and pervasive,” according to the Chicago Tribune. Karmeier added that the “ordinance goes no further than is essential to further the city’s objective of mitigating secondary effects.”
The case resulted from the city’s effort to revoke the liquor license of a company called Pooh Bah Enterprises Inc., which has operated a club under a variety of different names at 1531 N. Kingsbury St. in Chicago.
The various names of the club, which the Court referred to as a “so-called ‘gentlemen’s club’,” included Thee Dollhouse and The Crazy Horse Too, and the club now operates as “VIP’s, A Gentlemen’s Club.”
First in 1993 and again in 1999, the city sought to revoke the club’s liquor license, but their effort hit a stumbling block in 2001, when a Cook County judge declared the city’s ordinance unconstitutional. An appeals court reversed the County judge, after which the state’s highest court agreed to hear the case.
The club sought to get around the city’s ban by having dancers wear thongs, latex and flesh-toned makeup, but Karmeier wrote that “testimony from investigating police officers indicated that, in person, one could sometimes see through the makeup and latex,” according to the Tribune.
Chicago officials said Thursday that they were pleased with the court’s decision, which sends the case back to the trial judge to deal with other issues related to the Pooh Bah license.
In a written statement, Corporation Counsel Mara Georges said that “based on the record we have established regarding this club’s illegal conduct, we are confident that the license revocation will be upheld,” according to the Tribune.
The IL Supreme Court ruling, however, could be appealed to a federal appeals court before the case is returned to the trial judge, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Attorneys representing Pooh Bah have not yet confirmed whether they will make such an appeal, and did not provide comment on the Court’s ruling for either the Tribune or Sun-Times articles.
