DALLAS — The Supreme Court says it won’t review a federal appeals court decision that allowed Dallas to begin enforcing an ordinance requiring strip clubs and other sexually oriented businesses to close between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.
The Supreme Court Monday denied a petition to review the case from the Association of Club Executives of Dallas, a local branch of a trade group whose members include some sexually oriented businesses. The Supreme Court didn’t issue an opinion.
The Dallas City Council passed the ordinance in January of 2022. Police and other city officials had argued the measure could help reduce violent crime offenses. There were previously no city restrictions on hours of operation for strip clubs or adult video stores, as WFAA reported at the time. Businesses found in violation could lose their license. The ordinance also added the possibility of a penalty of no more than $4,000 and no more than one year of jail time for operators.
The association and businesses sued the city the day the measure was passed, arguing the ordinance violated their constitutional right to free expression. In October, though, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion siding with the city of Dallas and overruling a lower court's ruling that had halted enforcement of the ordinance. The city began enforcing the ordinance in late November.
“We cannot say that the Ordinance substantially or disproportionately restricts speech,” the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling read. “It leaves [sexually-oriented businesses] free to open for twenty hours a day, seven days a week, while also, in the City’s reasonable view, curtailing the violent crime with which the City was concerned.”
The group and businesses’ petition to the Supreme Court to review the case sought to cast doubt on the city’s data used to justify the ordinance’s passage and argued that it violated free speech rights.
Dallas police said each of the 34 sexually-oriented businesses in the city were notified of the ordinance and were in compliance after the first day of enforcement in November.
A Feb. 12 memo from Deputy City Manager Jon Fortune said two businesses had their licenses suspended after police investigators determined they violated the ordinance. One of the businesses served its suspension and got back in compliance and the other business appealed, according to the memo.
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