Passing Sexually-Oriented Business Regulations in Your Community
Many cities and counties in
Legal Restrictions
If your community is vulnerable and you want to protect it, consider these key points about SOB regulation:
1) The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that communities may not ban SOBs outright. The Court maintains that such businesses—provided they don't violate the law—have a right to exist.
2) However, the Court also ruled that communities can relegate SOBs to certain areas of town in order to mitigate their undesirable secondary effects. Hundreds of land-use studies have found that SOBs increase crime and blight and decrease property values where they are located. A community can pass an ordinance restricting such businesses to industrial areas or require that they be located a certain distance from parks, churches, schools and residential neighborhoods.
3) The Supreme Court also allows communities to pass what are known as time and manner restrictions. This type of ordinance can restrict such businesses from operating late at night (after midnight) when crime tends to increase. Also, restrictions on how such a business operates are constitutionally sound. Such regulations can include requiring background checks for all employees (to weed out convicted felons), requiring a no-touch rule for strip clubs, removing doors from "peep show" booths, prohibiting alcohol from being sold at strip clubs, or requiring such businesses to be licensed by the city.
For more information
If you'd like to take action to protect your community, Focus on the Family encourages you to seek guidance from trained attorneys specializing in these matters. For reference purposes we include the following recommendations:
Phone: 1-800-TELL-ADF
Law Office of Scott D. Bergthold, P.L.L.C.
Phone: 423-899-3025
These state-level organizations are fully independent but closely associated with the mission and aims of Focus on the Family.
Other resources
Frequently Asked Questions about Effective SOB Regulations
(From ADF)
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