Opinion ID: 2975704
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Overbreadth and Balancing of the Harms

Text: Plaintiffs raise two final arguments, that the Rules are impermissibly overbroad in violation fo the First Amendment and that the district court improperly balanced the harms to them and to the public against those of the government in denying them a preliminary injunction. While we note that plaintiffs’ appear to have a stronger case for overbreadth than even the plaintiffs in Odle and Triplett Grill, Inc. v. City of Akron, 40 F.3d 129 (6th Cir. 1994), where we held the statutes at issue would proscribe expressive conduct in theatrical and other types of performances which there is no reason to believe had any negative secondary effects and were therefore impermissibly overbroad, it is not necessary for us to engage in an in-depth analysis of plaintiffs’ overbreadth and balancing of the harms arguments in light of our holding above. 7 Nor are these inherently straightforward questions that we would somehow be suited to address on an undeveloped record. The Supreme Court’s opinion in Pap’s A.M. demonstrates the complicated nature of the analysis. Although five Justices voted to uphold the regulation in Pap’s A.M., two of them, Justices Scalia and Thomas, relied primarily on their determination that the case was moot and that the plaintiff lacked standing, reasoning alternatively that the city could ban nude dancing based on a determination that it was immoral, without facing First Amendment limitations. 529 U.S. at 310 (Scalia, J., concurring). As a result, only a plurality of four Justices applied the O’Brien intermediate scrutiny test, and found that the regulation met its requirements. Justice Souter, writing in dissent, agreed that this test applied, but disagreed that the city met its burden, due to a dearth of evidence regarding “the harm [the city] claims to flow from the expressive activity, and for the alleviation expected from the restriction imposed.” Id. at 313 (Souter, J., dissenting). There thus appears to be a difference in the evidentiary standard that the plurality and Justice Souter would require, with the plurality endorsing the government’s reliance on prior judicial opinions that addressed secondary effects, and the findings expressed by the Erie City Council in its preamble to the ordinance. Id. at 296-298. No. 06-1436 Hamilton’s Bogarts, Inc., et al. v. State of Michigan, et al. Page 8