Opinion ID: 787235
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Balancing of the Harms to the Parties and the Public Interest

Text: 49 Our discussion of Joelner's likelihood of success on the merits generally supports a preliminary injunction to prevent the Village from enforcing the ordinances. Yet our conclusions do not necessitate that outcome. As noted earlier, see supra Part II, because this case involves adult entertainment regulations, which implicate conflicting public interests, and because lingering factual questions make a definitive resolution on the merits impossible, the relative harms to the interested parties stemming from a grant or denial of a preliminary injunction must be weighed against the merits. Although we are fairly convinced that there are serious constitutional problems with both the numerical restriction and, to a lesser extent, the licensing fees, a preliminary injunction may nonetheless be inappropriate if the relative harms strongly disfavor such relief. See, e.g., MacDonald, 132 F.3d at 363 (vacating a preliminary injunction where the relative harms mediated against it). 50
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.
55 With respect to the $10,000 portion of the fee ordinance, if an injunction were refused and Joelner were forced to pay the fee in order to continue to operate his bookstore, Joelner could suffer significant irreparable harm. It is true that, assuming Joelner ultimately succeeds in establishing the invalidity of the fee provisions, his injury could be compensated through an award of money damages. MacDonald, 132 F.3d at 358 n. 4. However, $10,000 is a relatively onerous amount to pay to continue operate a business previously licensed for only $100 annually. Second and relatedly, if Joelner cannot afford such a hefty fee, he would be forced to shut down his bookstore. Hence, there is a threat that these allegedly unconstitutionally excessive fees could cause Joelner significant irreparable harm. See id. at 363 n. 8. 56 In contrast, if the injunction is granted, allowing Joelner to continue to operate his bookstore without paying the $10,000 fee, the possible harm to the Village is minimal. The Village would be deprived of $10,000 — and only temporarily, assuming, arguendo, the fee is later found to be constitutional. Even for a small municipality like Washington Park, the harm from such a temporary deprivation of capital cannot outweigh the possible harm to Joelner. Also, Washington Park licensed Joelner's bookstore for only $100 annually from at least 1995 until January 2003, despite the fact that Ordinance 069-99 (enacted September 1999) and Ordinance 01-00 (enacted January 2000) authorized the Village to impose fees of $3000 and $30,000, respectively. 10 If the Village managed to get along without Joelner's fees for the approximately eight years prior to 2003, surely the Village can survive without these fees for a few more months, while the merits are fully adjudicated. And, as noted earlier, there would be no harm at all to the Village if the fee is later found to be unconstitutional. Cf. Connection Distrib. Co., 154 F.3d at 288 ([T]he government presumably would be substantially harmed if enforcement of a constitutional law ... were enjoined[.]). 57 Regarding the alleged arrearages owed by Joelner, the record does not reveal the Board's basis for these contentions, other than statements by the Village Clerk that Joelner was in the red. But presumably, although there is no documentation of any objection by the Village to Joelner's payment of only a nominal $100 annual fee prior to January 2003, the Board seeks to hold Joelner responsible for the adult entertainment fees which ostensibly first became applicable in 1999. Given that Joelner's arrearages could possibly total around $56,000 11 and that the Village had made no objection to his nonpayment until January 2003, our above analysis with respect to the new $10,000 fee likewise applies to the alleged arrearages. 58 Furthermore, the bookstore is a forum for adult speech known and presumably relied upon by the public. Because the Village has licensed this business since at least 1995, the Village had, without question, previously determined that the secondary effects of this business were acceptable. Therefore, consideration of the relative harms weighs in favor of granting a preliminary injunction to prevent the Village from collecting the alleged arrearages and enforcing the $10,000 fee provision with respect to Joelner's existing bookstore business. To the extent that the district court's order required payment of these fees to the Village, it should be vacated.