Chicago Strip Clubs: Strip Clubs, Booze and the First Amendment

Strip Clubs, Booze and the First Amendment
Strip clubs in Virginia can sell beer and wine, but not mixed alcoholic beverages. Does that seem fair to you? It does to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which decided the law “passes constitutional muster” as a moderate, and permissible restriction of the club owners’ First Amendment free speech rights.
What do strip clubs have to do with freedom of speech? Well, as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 1981 case of Schad v. Borough of Mount Ephraim, that while not exactly a form of political speech, “nude dancing is not without its First Amendment protection from official regulation.”
But in the case of Virginia’s law, the 4th Circuit Court applied the “standard of intermediate scrutiny applicable to policies aimed at the harmful secondary effects of sexually oriented entertainment,” to find that, “The public interest served by the policy is substantial, the restriction on the clubs mild and the burden on First Amendment values slight.”

See the full article from “About – News & Issues (blog)”