After failing to garner enough signatures to petition a statewide vote on new strip club restrictions, Ohio adult entertainment business owners have now taken their battle court.
The new law that was passed earlier this year and went into effect last month forces strip clubs to close at midnight and enacts harsh new penalties for innocuous contact between patrons and dancers.
A coalition of adult entertainment businesses has asked US District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. to throw out the new law on the basis that it unconstitutionally restricts free expression and is too vague.
Originally, the coalition of business owners tried to force a statewide vote by collecting enough petition signatures, but fell short by 60,000 despite spending a reported $1.5 million on the campaign.
Opponents of adult entertainment businesses argue that gentlemen’s clubs increase crime, lower property values, degrade women, cause child molestation, and generally contribute to the destruction of society. All that from a naked woman…simply amazing.
We wish Ohio strip club owners and the patrons who enjoy those fine gentlemen’s clubs the best of luck in their battle against this egregious infringement of civil rights.