Adult Entertainment Missouri

A Missouri nutter lawmaker intends to reintroduce a law creating a host of new rules for adult sex stores and strip clubs, including a ban on lap dances. The legislation was proposed in 2008 as House Bill 2026, but it did not pass.

Representative Ed Emery, has said he intends to file the bill again in the 2009 legislative session. He said the language in the bill would remain mostly the same as it was in 2008.

The previous legislation would have required strip clubs to be located at least 1,000 feet from schools, churches, parks and day care facilities.

Among its provisions, the bill requires that No employee who appears in a semi-nude condition in a sexually oriented business shall knowingly or intentionally touch a patron or the clothing of a patron in a sexually orientated business, and further states that semi-nude dancers shall be and remain on a fixed stage at least six feet from all patrons and at least eighteen inches from the floor in a room of at least 600 square feet.

The original version of the bill also stated that No sexually oriented business may remain open at any time between the hours of 10 p.m. and 10 a.m. on weekdays and Saturdays. Such businesses shall be closed on all official state or federal holidays and Sundays.

Emery said the most powerful aspect of the bill would ban any obstructed views in a strip club, requiring all areas of the establishment be in open view.

State Senator Matt Bartle's eight-year mean minded quest to crack down on Missouri strip clubs finally succeeded this week.

The state Senate voted 27-4 for legislation that will ban full nudity and prohibit adult businesses from selling alcohol. The clubs also would have to close between midnight and 6 a.m.

Most human beings understand that if you mix alcohol and women dancing in the nude, that's a tough combo, said Bartle: Bad things happen.

The vote, combined with the House's 118-28 vote earlier, sends the bill to Governor Jay Nixon. A spokesman for the Democratic governor said he was inclined to sign it. He is generally supportive of tighter restrictions on these types of businesses, spokesman Jack Cardetti said.

Opponents said if enacted, the new law will almost certainly result in a court challenge. They said the law will hurt all strip clubs and hundreds, and maybe thousands, of workers will lose their jobs.

Under the proposal, the adult entertainment industry would undergo  major restrictions. Juice bars that don't sell alcohol, but present nude dancers would be outlawed. Semi-nude dancers would have to stay at least 6 feet away from patrons and no touching would be allowed.

All that lap dancing stuff, that's gone, Bartle said.

Adult businesses could not operate within 1,000 feet of a school, church, day-care facility, library, park, residence or another adult business. Operators of any adult establishment would have to have an unobstructed view…of every area of the premises.

The bill's passage came on the second to last day of the 2010 session and represented Bartle's last shot at passing a bill because he is retiring from the Senate.

Cole County Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetem has ruled in favor of a sweeping law that would impose unprecedented restrictions on adult businesses in Missouri.

In denying a temporary restraining order request Friday afternoon by a consortium of adult businesses, Beetem cleared the way for the law to go into effect Saturday.

Among other restrictions, the law prohibits full nudity and the serving of alcohol, forces semi-nude dancers to remain on a stage and at least six feet from patrons—rendering lap dances impossible—prohibits closed-door booths for the viewing of movies, requires that patrons remain within the clear view of employees, and mandates that adult businesses close by midnight.

According to the Associated Press, Judge Beetem said the coalition had failed to show their lawsuit is likely to ultimately succeed or that they will suffer irreparable harm by allowing the law to take effect. The operative word there would seem to be irreparable. During a hearing before Beetem, lawyers for the businesses insisted that the harm could very well be irreparable, and would certainly seem that way for the employees who will now certainly lose their jobs because of the severe restrictions that are about to be imposed.

But while Beetem acknowledged in his ruling that the law will undoubtedly change the business practices of strip clubs, adult video and book stores and other businesses of a sexual nature, and that they will likely suffer some economic loss, he added that economic loss alone does not alter the analysis of the legal issues.

Update: Setback

9th February 2011. See article from business.avn.com

Judge Jon Beetem has tossed a constitutional challenge to a state law enacted in 2010 that imposed sweeping restrictions on adult businesses in the state. Despite the ruling, which was anticipated, adult bookstore and club owners say they will appeal the case to the state Supreme Court, where they figured it would end up anyway.

The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that repressive regulations prohibiting nude dancing and restrict other kinds of adult entertainment don't violate the Missouri or U.S. constitutions.

The restrictions are not content-based limitations on speech but rather are aimed at limiting the negative secondary effects of sexually oriented businesses on the health, welfare and safety of Missouri residents, the court claimed in its unanimous ruling.

The state's adult entertainment industry sued last year to block the law's requirements. Industry experts say business has been down over 75% at Missouri strip clubs.

The law, enacted earlier this year, prohibits full nudity at sexually oriented businesses, and mandates early closing at midnight. The law also cuts off alcohol at those businesses and prohibits semi-nude (female breasts exposed below the nipple or uncovered male or female buttocks ) employees from touching customers. It also says stages on which seminude dancers perform must be at least six feet from customers and at least 18 inches high.