Opinion ID: 2273939
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Criminal Disability Provision

Text: Another provision in the ordinance states that an adult entertainment license is to be denied if the applicant has been convicted of a specified crime, including rape, sexual misconduct, indecent exposure, falsifying business records, prostitution, obscenity, engaging in organized crime, and certain drug offenses. Appellants argue that the provision operates as a prior restraint on free speech and is therefore unconstitutional. The trial court found that the Appellants lacked standing to challenge the provision because there was nothing in the record indicating that any of the them had been convicted of any of the specified crimes. The Court of Appeals agreed, citing FW/ PBS, Inc. v. City of Dallas, 493 U.S. 215, 110 S.Ct. 596, 107 L.Ed.2d 603 (1990), which is precisely on point. In FW/PBS, Inc., which involved a similar criminal disability provision in an ordinance regulating sexually oriented businesses, there was nothing in the record indicating that any of the parties had been convicted of one of the specified crimes. Id. at 233-35, 110 S.Ct. 596. To establish standing to challenge that provision the individual must show both (1) a conviction of one or more of the enumerated crimes, and (2) that the conviction or release from confinement occurred recently enough to disable the applicant under the ordinance. Id. at 234, 110 S.Ct. 596. Because there is nothing in the record in the instant case demonstrating that Appellants have been convicted of any of the specified crimes, the lower court and Court of Appeals properly found they did not have standing to challenge the criminal disability provision.