Court Opinion

ID: 9634155
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 12:50:41.086114+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:43:30.795972
License: Public Domain

WILLIAM P. GRAY, District Judge
(dissenting):
It seems to me that this is a case in which our court should abstain until the courts of California have had an opportunity to consider the constitutional issues here concerned. This conclusion is reinforced by the decisions of the Supreme Court in Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971) and its five companion cases1 that were all decided on the same day, and which came after Wisconsin v. Constantineau, 400 U.S. 433, 91 S.Ct. 507, 27 L.Ed.2d 515 (1971), upon which the majority opinion here relies. It is true that Younger and its companion cases were concerned with whether a United States District Court should enjoin a currently pending state criminal prosecution, which is a somewhat different issue *363from the one here involved. However, a principal thrust of those opinions is to suggest to our three judge courts that we should give increased consideration to the concept of comity, which embodies “ * * * a proper respect for state functions * * * and a continuance of the belief that the National Government will fare best if the States and their institutions are left free to perform their separate functions in their separate ways. * * * What the concept does represent is a system in which there is sensitivity to the legitimate interests of both State and National Governments, and in which the National Government, anxious though it may be to vindicate and protect federal rights and federal interests, always endeavors to do so in ways that will not unduly interfere with the legitimate activities of the States.” Younger v. Harris, 401 U. S. 37, 44, 91 S.Ct. 746, 750, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971). This seems to me to be a good case in which to apply this principle.
The California courts are just as able as are we to consider whether or not the subject regulations square with the United States Constitution. They should be given the opportunity so to do, and I am by no means persuaded that this record shows them to have declined to assume such responsibility.
Now that this court has determined to rule on the merits of the case at hand, I find myself again in disagreement with the majority. The question here is not simply “ * * * whether a state administrative agency may require ‘fig leaves’ to be worn by entertainers in California” (see majority opinion, page 350). I agree with Judge Ferguson that “ * * * it is well settled that theatrical entertainment falls within the protection of the free speech-free press provisions of the First Amendment * * (Majority opinion, page 354.) However, this valid assertion of the law does not necessarily carry the day in deciding this case.
Dancing without fig leaves may very well be a form of artistic expression protected by the First Amendment. But such a right is not absolute. For example, the state, under its police power, certainly could prohibit nude dancing on the street corner or on the campus of a junior high school. It is also within the police power to prohibit all sales of alcoholic beverages and to impose reasonable restrictions upon the conditions under which such sales may be made.
If we acknowledge these things, I do not think that it is beyond the constitutional right of California, through its administrative agency, to say, in its wisdom or lack of wisdom, that lewd or naked dancing (even though not necessarily obscene) and the serving of alcohol do not properly mix, and that although a person may present one or the other, he may not do both at the same place and time.
As the majority opinion indicates, it is conceded that the regulations prohibiting direct personal contact between customers and naked employees are constitutionally enforceable. The opinion also suggests that this is so because such contact and what may result therefrom are offensive to public morals. At the administrative hearing from which the subject regulations stemmed, there was testimony as to some of the horrendous things that an occasional “well-oiled” patron purportedly did to the first girl that he saw, immediately upon leaving a bar after having been aroused and “inspired” by the nude dancing. We might think up logical reasons that would warrant regulations seeking to protect the public morals against on-site offenses, and ignore any subsequent danger. But I believe that nothing in the Constitution requires such a distinction.

. Boyle v. Landry, 401 U.S. 77, 91 S.Ct. 758, 27 L.Ed.2d 696 (1971); Samuels v. Mackell, 401 U.S. 66, 91 S.Ct. 764, 27 L.Ed.2d 688 (1971); Perez v. Ledesma, 401 U.S. 82. 91 S.Ct. 674. 27 L.Ed.2d 701 (1971); Dyson v. Stein, 401 U.S. 200, 91 S.Ct. 769, 27 L.Ed.2d 781 (1971); Byrne v. Karalexis, 401 U.S. 216, 91 S.Ct. 777, 27 L.Ed. 792 (1971).