Federal judge dismisses challenge to Nebraska city's exotic-dancing rules

By The Associated Press

08.01.02

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A federal judge has tossed out an adult entertainment club owner's challenge to a Nebraska city's "no touch" ordinance regarding exotic dancers.

U.S. Senior District Judge Warren Urbom ruled July 29 that the Lincoln ordinance doesn't violate the First Amendment.

Meanwhile in Nevada, exotic dancers and strip club supporters are up in arms over a new ordinance restricting lap-dance gyrations and barring customers from stuffing bills in G-strings at clubs outside Sin City.

"It's the image of Vegas," strip club customer Tony Anziano, 25, said yesterday before the Clark County Commission voted 5-1 to adopt lap-dance restrictions. "Now they're trying to make it like it's some sort of Disneyland."

Lap dances were illegal in Clark County, but the law was so vague that it was rarely enforced in the clubs in the county outside Las Vegas.

Things are looser in Las Vegas itself. Lap dances are permitted in six clubs in the city, and tips may be slipped into G-strings — though fondling is off-limits. The new county rules will not apply within Las Vegas.

The Nebraska case began when John Ways Jr., owner of Mataya's Babydolls, filed a lawsuit in 2000 claiming that a Lincoln city ordinance banning his dancers from touching customers was unconstitutionally broad.

The club, which does not serve alcohol, has offered "full-contact" table and couch dancing.

Physical contact between dancers and customers in businesses that serve liquor is prohibited by state law, but it doesn't cover those that don't serve alcohol.

So the city passed an ordinance banning sexual contact at businesses. It defined sexual contact as "intentional touching of a person's sexual organ, buttocks, or breasts, whether covered or not, or kissing, when such contact can reasonably be construed as being for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification of either party or any observer."

Urbom ruled earlier that the ordinance banned even legitimate performances with artistic merit.

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later upheld that ruling.

The city then passed a new ordinance, adding a provision exempting theaters, concert halls, museums and other venues, which Ways also challenged.

The Lincoln Journal Star reported yesterday that Urbom said in his July 29 memorandum that the revised law addressed and fixed the original ordinance's flaw.

In Nevada, an 18-month undercover police investigation had found lap dancing led to simulated sex acts, "excessive grinding" and, in some cases, prostitution. Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates wanted to change that, so she proposed banning dancers and customers from touching each other's buttocks, genitals or breasts during lap dances.

As of Sept. 1, lap dances will be legal, but dancers won't be able to touch or sit on the customer's genital area. They are allowed to touch and dance on a customer's legs. Stuffing dollar bills in G-strings will be prohibited.

Most people attending the commission's meeting were displeased with the new rules.

"You're confusing sex with titillation," Dr. Jeffrey Arenswald told the commission. "You have some repressed sexual ideas."

At that, Gates banged her gavel.

"I'm not doing this because of my sexual anything," Gates said. "I'm doing this because I think it's right."

Commission members viewed two surveillance tapes of undercover activity at strip clubs before voting. The public watched the racy videos, too, in a separate room.

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Nebraska strip club wins round in fight against city
Federal appeals panel strikes down Lincoln ordinance banning sexual contact at businesses, saying law could inhibit 'constitutionally protected artistic expression.'  12.17.01