Opinion ID: 2972456
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Disclosure of personal information

Text: Deja Vu also claims that the resolution violates the First Amendment by requiring an applicant for an adult-cabaret license to furnish the Board with certain personal information. An applicant must provide his or her “full name, residence address and date of birth,” Resolution No. 00-22 § (D)(5)(c), and an “[a]uthorization for an investigation into the background, including any criminal record, of the applicant and any person or entity named in the application . . . .” Id. at (D)(5)(g). In addition, “a list of employees” must be filed by a licensee that states “the name, date of birth, and position of each employee.” Id. at (M)(3). Deja Vu maintains that requiring the disclosure of this information “as a prerequisite for being able to engage in First Amendment protected activities” is unconstitutional. The district court applied the four-part test outlined in United States v. O’Brien, 391 U.S. 367 (1968), to evaluate whether the information-disclosure provisions were permissible. After concluding that the above-mentioned disclosure requirements were sufficiently related to the legitimate governmental interests supporting the resolution and were not impermissibly broad, the district court upheld the provision. The district court did, however, strike down as impermissibly broad the portions of Resolution No. 99-15 that required the disclosure of personal information related to every partner or shareholder of an applicant. As amended, the resolution no longer contains these disclosure provisions and neither Union Township nor the Attorney General has appealed the district court’s holding on this issue. The amended resolution also omits the provision that required an applicant to disclose the residential address and social security number of each adult-cabaret employee. Resolution No. 99-15 § (D)(5)(f). As noted above, however, the resolution still requires a licensee to maintain a list of employees with the Clerk, including “the name, date of birth, and position of each employee.” Resolution No. 00-22 § (M)(3). On appeal, Deja Vu contends that the collection of personal information from an adultcabaret applicant does not further a substantial governmental interest. This court has declared, however, that disclosure provisions even broader than those contained in Resolution No. 00-22 § (D) further a substantial governmental interest in minimizing the secondary effects of sexually oriented businesses. See Deja Vu of Nashville, Inc., 274 F.3d at 393 (holding that an ordinance requiring applicants to “divulge such personal information as full name, height, weight, hair color, eye color, date of birth, current residential address, and all residential addresses for the prior three years” furthers Nashville’s “substantial governmental interest in eradicating the secondary effects of sexually oriented businesses”). This argument by Deja Vu is therefore without merit. Deja Vu further maintains that the personal information gathered is not narrowly tailored to achieve Union Township’s purported interest in promoting the general health, safety, and welfare of its citizens. In support of this argument, Deja Vu cites Schultz v. City of Cumberland, 228 F.3d 831, 852 (7th Cir. 2000), in which the Seventh Circuit invalidated a provision requiring an applicant to disclose his or her residential address, concluding that such information “is not narrowly tailored to the government’s interest in the time, place or manner of adult entertainment.” Deja Vu also claims that the collection of personal information creates a substantial danger because, pursuant to Nos. 00-4420/4529 Deja Vu of Cincinnati v. Union Township et al. Page 13 Ohio’s Public Records Act, Ohio Revised Code § 149.43(A)(1) and (B), such disclosures would be considered to be public records. Given that public records can be reviewed by anyone, Deja Vu contends that the personal safety of individuals applying for an adult cabaret license might be jeopardized. This tension between the legitimate governmental need for such information and the reasonable concerns of adult-cabaret licensees for their personal safety was resolved by this court in Deja Vu of Nashville, Inc., 274 F.3d at 394. The court upheld the Nashville ordinance’s required disclosures, but only after concluding that Kallstrom v. City of Columbus, 136 F.3d 1055, 1064-65 (6th Cir. 1998), prohibits public release of the applicants’ names and current and past residential addresses. Deja Vu of Nashville, Inc., 274 F.3d at 394. Like the plaintiffs in Deja Vu of Nashville, Inc., the plaintiffs in the present case have presented “significant evidence that the requirement that applicants submit their names and . . . addresses to a public forum poses serious risks to their personal security.” Id. We therefore conclude that the resolution’s disclosure provisions are constitutional, but that the names and other information that are gathered pursuant to those provisions constitute protected private information that are exempted from Ohio’s Public Records Act. See Ohio Rev. Code § 149.43; see also Deja Vu of Nashville, Inc., 274 F.3d at 395 (holding that “all sexually oriented business license and permit applicants’ names and current and past residential addresses constitute protected private information and are therefore exempted from Tennessee’s Open Records Act”).