Opinion ID: 787235
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The $30,000 Cabaret Fee and the Numerical Restriction

Text: 51 Regarding the $30,000 fee portion of the ordinance and the numerical restriction, if an injunction were refused, there would be no direct harm to Joelner because he does not have any currently operating licensed cabaret businesses. We also note again our concern about whether Joelner actually owns the relevant properties, see supra note 4. Generously, we do acknowledge that Joelner would suffer some opportunity costs if an injunction were refused and these ordinances were later found unconstitutional. But such opportunity costs are too speculative for us to consider here. For example, if we were to enjoin the enforcement of these ordinances, who is to say that Joelner's proposed business would find adequate staff or operate at a profit? 52 However, if the Village was forced to hold new hearings on Joelner's applications, the Village would incur costs, admittedly nominal. And if the Village was compelled to grant Joelner the licenses he requested, as he urges us to do, the Village would bear the not insignificant increase in police, infrastructural, and other related costs. 53 Moreover, if the injunction were refused with respect to the $30,000 fee and numerical restriction, Washington Park would still have six currently licensed and operating adult entertainment outlets, including Joelner's bookstore at 2226 Kingshighway. Put differently, there would be no shortage of forums for this type of communication. And as mentioned previously, the opening of each additional outlet may be accompanied by deleterious secondary effects (e.g., increased crime rates, diminished property values, deterioration of neighborhoods, see, e.g., Renton, 475 U.S. at 46-47, 106 S.Ct. 925). 54 In sum, given that there is an abundance of adult entertainment venues in Washington Park, that Joelner does not currently operate any cabaret, and that the Village and the public would bear both direct and indirect costs if even one additional outlet were opened, despite the constitutional hurdles that must be overcome by each ordinance, a preliminary injunction requiring either new hearings or the issuance of any new licenses to Joelner is on balance disfavored. The district court's order, to the extent it required the Village to conduct a new hearing for Joelner, must be vacated.