Louisville’s Metro Government got a shot in the arm on June 7 from the U.S. Supreme Court when it ruled that communities can strictly regulate sexually oriented businesses (SOB’s).  The court upheld a Littleton, Colorado ordinance similar to Louisville's new law, which mandates licenses, bans total nudity and requires dancers to stay at least 6 feet from customers.  The ordinance also bans the sale of alcohol where there are live performances and requires viewing booths and peep shows to be open to monitoring at all times.    

Jefferson County Attorney Irv Maze was pleased with the ruling. "It's going to be awful hard to ignore," Maze said.   He hopes the ruling will pave the way for Louisville to begin enforcing its adult-entertainment ordinance, which has been on hold since Jefferson Circuit Judge Steven temporarily blocked the law from taking effect in March.  Since then, SOB’s have proliferated throughout the city with many locating near churches and residential areas—a blatant disregard to basic zoning laws.                                       

In his temporary restraining order, Judge Ryan didn't elaborate on why he was blocking the law.  He said only that the SOB’s would suffer “irreparable harm” if the law was enforced and that there is a question of the constitutionality of the ordinance.                                  

Frank Mascagni, a lawyer representing P.T.'s Showclub and Déjà Vu, both strip clubs, said he was mostly concerned about the tone the Supreme Court case sets.  "What scares me is this conservative court allowing government to continue placing regulations on lawful businesses," he said.                                                                                                   

However, court watchers say the Supreme Court has been anything but conservative, noting that the court blocked the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) on June 29.  Passed overwhelmingly by Congress in 1998, COPA was designed to protect children from hard-core pornography readily available over the Internet.