Strip Club Ordinance Upheld

Circuit Judge Lee Haworth earlier this month delivered a slam-dunk ruling in favor of Sarasota County’s ordinance regulating sexually oriented businesses.

The suit was filed in 2009 by the on North Washington Boulevard. The location has been the site of a sexually oriented business since Club Mary began operation in the 1970s.

The judge noted the challenge to the ordinance rested entirely on state, not federal law.

“Faced with multiple decisions upholding virtually identical regulations when challenged under the federal constitution, Plaintiff’s complaint rests solely on the Florida Constitution – primarily the free speech provisions…” Haworth wrote in his decision.

The ruling has the potential to affect any potential suit that could be filed against Manatee County’s new sexually oriented business ordinance, which bans the sale of alcohol. Sarasota County’s ordinance regulates them as businesses. The ordinances are similar.

Haworth struck down all seven counts brought by Luke Lirot, Cheetah Lounge's attorney, to unhinge the ordinance. Lirot said by email he plans to file a motion for rehearing with Haworth today. 

And Lirot said he is talking with his clients in Manatee about a possible challenge to the new regulations adopted earlier this month.

Sarasota County first regulated adult-oriented businesses in 1996, and gave all existing firms a decade of grandfathering before they had to comply with the new regulation. But in 2006, Cheetah’s attorney, Luke Lirot, challenged the 1996 ordinance in Federal Court.

The county took another look at its ordinance in light of the federal suit, and began to rework it in 2007. It was based, in part, on Manatee County’s ordinance, which requires that the location be regulated and that the firm be licensed.

A transcript of the two public hearings on the ordinance runs 265 pages. The ordinance was adopted in 2008.

“The Court’s review of the evidentiary record, as well as the argument of counsel, demonstrates that Sarasota County’s (sexually oriented business) Code is patterned, nearly identically, after the sexually oriented business ordinances adopted, and unsuccessfully challenged, in Manatee and Hillsborough Counties,” Haworth wrote. He called it “a near word-for-word copy.”

The judge cited three differences where Manatee County regulations are more strict, including the ban on alcohol sales. Twice challenged in cases Haworth dubbed Peek-a-Boo I and Peek-a-Boo II, he said, “The evidence in this case shows Plaintiffs have not met their burden to cast direct doubt on the County’s evidence and rationale.”

Haworth struck down all seven counts brought by Lirot on behalf of the Cheetah Lounge to unhinge the ordinance. Lirot said by email he plans to file a motion for rehearing with Haworth today. 

And Lirot said he is talking with his clients in Manatee about a possible challenge to the new regulations adopted earlier this month.