Opinion ID: 2972456
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Hours of operation

Text: Deja Vu’s next contention is that the hours-of-operation provision in the resolution violates the First Amendment. The district court denied Deja Vu a preliminary injunction on this issue after finding that the hours-of-operation provision “furthers an important or substantial interest in the protection of public safety,” and that it “is reasonable and no more repressive of protected speech than is essential to serve Defendants’ legitimate interests.” In so ruling, the district court emphasized that Deja Vu is still allowed to operate for 84 hours each week. To analyze Deja Vu’s claim, we must first determine what level of scrutiny to apply to the resolution. We are guided by the Supreme Court’s decision in City of Erie v. Pap’s A.M., 529 U.S. 277 (2000), in which the Court held that “government restrictions on public nudity . . . should be evaluated under the framework set forth in [United States v.] O’Brien [391 U.S. 367 (1968),] for content-neutral restrictions on symbolic speech.” City of Erie, 529 U.S. at 289, 293 (applying “the ‘less stringent’ standard from O’Brien” that is normally reserved for content-neutral regulations because the “State’s interest in preventing harmful secondary effects is not related to the suppression of expression”). Under the four-part test outlined in O’Brien, “a government regulation is sufficiently justified if it is within the constitutional power of the Government; if it furthers an important or substantial governmental interest; if the governmental interest is unrelated to the suppression of free expression; and if the incidental restriction on alleged First Amendment freedoms is no greater than is essential to the furtherance of that interest.” 391 U.S. at 377. The resolution’s hours-of-operation provision will pass muster under O’Brien so long as it imposes only “reasonable time, place or manner restrictions” on protected speech. See Clark v. Cmty for Creative Non-Violence, 468 U.S. 288, 293, 298 (1984) (noting that the “four-factor standard of [O’Brien] for validating a regulation of expressive conduct . . . is little, if any, different from the standard applied to time, place, or manner restrictions”); see also Richland Bookmart, Inc. v. Nichols, 137 F.3d 435, 440 (6th Cir. 1998) (“Richland Bookmart I”) (analyzing a similar hours-ofoperation provision “as a form of time, place and manner regulation”). To be valid, however, the resolution’s hours-of-operation provision must (1) “serve a significant government interest,” (2) be “narrowly tailored” to that purpose, and (3) “leave open ample alternative channels for communication of the information.” Clark, 468 U.S. at 293. Deja Vu contends that the hours-of-operation provision, which requires that adult cabarets close at midnight, does not serve a substantial governmental interest because there is no evidence that additional operating hours would lead to negative secondary effects. A similar argument was considered by this court in Richland Bookmart I, 137 F.3d 435, in which an adult bookstore challenged a statute regulating the operating hours of adult-oriented establishments. Like the resolution in this case, the statute in Richland Bookmart I had been enacted for the express purpose of minimizing the adverse secondary effects of sexually oriented businesses. The court found that “[r]educing crime, open sex and solicitation of sex and preserving the aesthetic and commercial character of the neighborhoods surrounding adult establishments is a substantial government interest . . . . It is not unreasonable to believe that such regulation of hours of shops selling sex literature Nos. 00-4420/4529 Deja Vu of Cincinnati v. Union Township et al. Page 10 would tend to deter prostitution” and other negative secondary effects. Id. at 440 (quotation marks omitted). For the same reasons, we reject Deja Vu’s argument that the hours-of-operation provision does not further Union Township’s substantial interest in protecting “the public health, safety and welfare.” Union Township’s decision to regulate the hours of operation was based upon studies of the adverse secondary effects of adult cabarets and other sexually oriented businesses. Resolution No. 00-22 §§ B & C. As the Supreme Court has recognized, “[t]he asserted interests of . . . combating the harmful secondary effects associated with nude dancing are undeniably important,” and such “regulation furthers the government interest . . . since crime and other public health and safety problems are caused by the presence of nude dancing establishments . . . .” City of Erie, 529 U.S. at 296, 300. Deja Vu contends, in the alternative, that the hours-of-operation provision is not narrowly tailored and that the resulting burden on protected First Amendment expression is greater than necessary to further Union Township’s interest in minimizing the secondary effects of adult cabarets. In support of its position, Deja Vu points to the fact that the resolution permits adult cabarets that serve alcohol to stay open until 2:30 a.m., while those cabarets not serving alcohol are prohibited from being open past midnight. Resolution No. 00-22 § (L)(1) (requiring an adult cabaret to close at the later of midnight or the closing time required under its liquor permit). Because Deja Vu is an adult cabaret that does not sell alcoholic beverages, it can operate only until midnight. Deja Vu claims that such disparate treatment is unjustified, and points to the decisions of numerous courts that have concluded that sexually oriented businesses that serve alcohol actually present an increased risk of adverse secondary effects. See, e.g., New York State Liquor Auth. v. Bellanca, 452 U.S. 714, 718 (1981) (“Common sense indicates that any form of nudity coupled with alcohol in a public place begets undesirable behavior.”). That the resolution results in disparate treatment, however, does not necessarily raise First Amendment concerns. If there were no reasonable explanation for the resolution’s distinction between the two types of cabarets, the inference could be drawn that Union Township was acting with some invidious motive in passing the resolution. But this is not the case here, where Union Township can point to at least two plausible justifications for the different closing times. The first is that Union Township wanted to institute a midnight closing time for all adult cabarets, but was prevented from doing so by conflicting state liquor laws. Second, in enacting the resolution, Union Township relied upon research suggesting that the patrons of alcohol-free adult cabarets are often more unruly because these cabarets are frequently patronized later in the evening by customers who have become intoxicated at other establishments. Although Union Township could have elected to permit all adult cabarets to close at 2:30 a.m., thereby accommodating state liquor laws and eliminating the disparate treatment concerns, the First Amendment does not require Union Township to make this choice. See Ward v. Rock Against Racism, 491 U.S. 781, 798 (1989) (holding that although “a regulation of the time, place, or manner of protected speech must be narrowly tailored[,] . . . it need not be the least restrictive or least intrusive means of doing so”). The dissenting opinion, however, notes that “the Township has cited no research whatsoever” in enacting the resolution. Admittedly, Union Township did not commission its own in-depth study, but “[t]he First Amendment does not require a city, before enacting such an ordinance, to conduct new studies or produce evidence independent of that already generated by other cities, so long as whatever evidence the city relies upon is reasonably believed to be relevant to the problem that the city addresses.” City of Renton v. Playtime Theaters, Inc., 475 U.S. 41, 5052 (1986). As stated in the preamble to the resolution, Union Township relied upon studies from 12 different cities in determining that enactment of the resolution would curtail unwanted secondary Nos. 00-4420/4529 Deja Vu of Cincinnati v. Union Township et al. Page 11 effects associated with adult cabarets, including increased crime. Union Township Administrator Kenneth Geis further attested that documented instances of intoxicated patrons engaging in “serious criminal activity in [a] cabaret” prior to the enactment of the resolution also led Union Township to conclude that tighter regulation of the hours of operation of adult cabarets would likely decrease criminal activity in the cabarets and surrounding neighborhoods. This evidence can be said to “fairly support [Union Township]’s rationale for its ordinance” and therefore meets the requirements of the narrow-tailoring test. City of Los Angeles v. Alameda Books, Inc., 535 U.S. 425, 438-439 (2002) (rejecting a First Amendment challenge to a zoning ordinance because the adult-business plaintiffs failed to “demonstrat[e] that the municipality’s evidence does not support its rationale or . . . furnish[] evidence that disputes the municipality’s factual findings”). The resolution’s hours-of-operation provision also “leave[s] open ample alternative channels for communication” of Deja Vu’s protected expression. See Clark, 468 U.S. at 293. In Richland Bookmart I, this court found that “[a]ccess to adult establishments [wa]s not unduly restricted” by legislation that required adult businesses to close at midnight. 137 F.3d at 441 (upholding the closing law because adult businesses could “still be open many hours during the week”). We similarly conclude that the resolution’s hours-of-operation provision, which permits Deja Vu to be open for twelve hours a day, six days a week, passes First Amendment muster. See Ctr. for Fair Pub. Policy v. Maricopa County, 336 F.3d 1153, 1159 (9th Cir. 2003) (noting, in upholding a restriction on the operating hours of adult businesses, that “six other circuits have had occasion to consider similar restrictions, and all have found such restrictions to be constitutional”). In addition to its First Amendment challenge to the hours-of-operation provision, Deja Vu also argues that the resolution in question violates the Equal Protection Clause because it applies to the hours of operation of sexually oriented businesses that offer live entertainment but not to those that offer only pictorial representations. These other “sexually oriented businesses,” such as adult bookstores and theaters, are allowed to stay open until 2:30 a.m. pursuant to a different Union Township resolution. An analogous argument was addressed by this court in Richland Bookmart, Inc. v. Nichols, 278 F.3d 570, 572 (6th Cir. 2002) (“Richland Bookmart II”), where legislation limited the operating hours of adult businesses, but made an exception for those businesses offering “only live, stage adult entertainment in a theater, adult cabaret, or dinner show type setting.” The court found that the legislation was subject to the relaxed standard of rational-basis scrutiny “[b]ecause adult-bookstore owners are obviously not a suspect class entitled to heightened protection,” and because an otherwise valid hours-of-operation restriction does not “implicate any fundamental right.” Id. at 574. Deja Vu does not seriously dispute that the resolution’s hours-of-operation provision is subject to rational-basis review. Rather, it contends that the provision’s distinction between live and nonlive entertainment is irrational. The fact that the resolution’s hours-of-operation provision contains an exception for establishments offering nonlive entertainment, however, is not a cause for concern under rational-basis review because a government “may implement its program of reform by gradually adopting regulations that only partially ameliorate a perceived evil.” Id. at 577 (citation omitted); see also Williamson v. Lee Optical of Okla., Inc., 348 U.S. 483, 489 (1955) (finding that “the reform may take one step at a time, addressing itself to the phase of the problem which seems most acute to the legislative mind . . . and apply a remedy there, neglecting the others” without violating the Equal Protection Clause). Because the hours-of-operation provision furthers a substantial government interest, as discussed above, and because there is no evidence of an impermissible motive on the part of Union Township, the resolution withstands Deja Vu’s EqualProtection challenge. See Richland Bookmart II, 278 F.3d at 576 (stating that “an exemption will rarely, if ever, invalidate a statute, unless the distinction created by the exemption is the result of invidious discrimination”). Nos. 00-4420/4529 Deja Vu of Cincinnati v. Union Township et al. Page 12 Deja Vu further argues, however, that the resolution violates the Equal Protection Clause because adult cabarets that do not have a liquor license are required to close at midnight, while adult cabarets that serve alcohol are permitted to remain open until the 2:30 a.m. closing time provided under their state liquor licenses. The dissenting opinion accepts this argument and proposes as a solution the more speech-restrictive alternative of “requir[ing] all cabarets to cease nude dancing at midnight.” Dissenting Op. at 21 (emphasis in original). But because there is no evidence that Union Township enacted the resolution with an impermissible motive, and because Union Township may act incrementally to alleviate the harmful secondary effects of adult cabarets, we reject this Equal Protection challenge to the resolution’s hours-of-operation provision.