Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 393

529US1

Unit: $U42

[10-11-01 11:58:08] PAGES PGT: OPIN

318

ERIE v. PAP’S A. M.

Stevens, J., dissenting

the total suppression of protected speech.
Indeed, the plu-
rality opinion concludes that admittedly trivial advance-
ments of a State’s interests may provide the basis for censor-
ship. The Court’s commendable attempt to replace the
fractured decision in Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc., 501 U. S.
560 (1991), with a single coherent rationale is strikingly
unsuccessful; it is supported neither by precedent nor by
persuasive reasoning.

I

As the preamble to Ordinance No. 75–1994 candidly ac-
knowledges, the council of the city of Erie enacted the
restriction at issue “for the purpose of limiting a recent
increase in nude live entertainment within the City.” Ante,
at 290 (internal quotation marks omitted). Prior to the en-
actment of the ordinance, the dancers at Kandyland per-
formed in the nude. As the Court recognizes, after its en-
actment they can perform precisely the same dances if they
wear “pasties and G-strings.” Ante, at 294; see also ante,
at 313, n. 2 (Souter, J., concurring in part and dissenting in
part).
In both instances, the erotic messages conveyed by
the dancers to a willing audience are a form of expression
protected by the First Amendment. Ante, at 289.1 Despite
the similarity between the messages conveyed by the two
forms of dance, they are not identical.

If we accept Chief Judge Posner’s evaluation of this art
form, see Miller v. South Bend, 904 F. 2d 1081, 1089–1104
(CA7 1990) (en banc), the difference between the two mes-
sages is signiﬁcant. The plurality assumes, however, that
the difference in the content of the message resulting from

1 Respondent does not contend that there is a constitutional right to
engage in conduct such as lap dancing. The message of eroticism con-
veyed by the nudity aspect of the dance is quite different from the issue
of the proximity between dancer and audience. Respondent’s contention
is not that Erie has focused on lap dancers, see ante, at 308 (Scalia, J.,
concurring in judgment), but that it has focused on the message conveyed
by nude dancing.