January 5, 2000
Court hears case on nude dancing
___WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments over whether a local government's ban on public nudity is constitutional when its target actually appears to be nude dancing.
___The justices will determine whether the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was correct in refusing to apply any of the opinions of the majority in a 1991 high court ruling upholding an Indiana law that was a general prohibition of public nudity.
___In 1994, the Erie, Pa., city council adopted a public indecency ordinance banning nudity. Though the text of the measure is a general prohibition of nudity, the preamble cites nude dancing in nightclubs. City council members who supported the ban said they were targeting nude dancing.
___The owner of Kandyland, a nude-dancing club, challenged the ordinance. The state Supreme Court rejected the majority's opinions in the high court's 1991 Indiana case and struck down the Erie measure as an unconstitutional suppression of a form of expression protected by the First Amendment.
___Gregory Karle, city solicitor of Erie, told the justices the ordinance is constitutional because it is content neutral. Nude dancing "may be the triggering point of the ordinance" but that "does not make it content specific," he said.
___John Weston, a Los Angeles lawyer who argued against the ordinance, told the court the city council's motivation does matter. "Erie's only concern" in passing and enforcing the ordinance was to halt nude dancing, he said. There is already a state law against nudity, Weston said.
___The city council asked the courts to participate in a "charade" by passing a general law with a specific target, Weston told the justices.
___Chief Justice William Rehnquist disagreed. It is "only a charade" if Erie did not enforce the ordinance against nudity in other contexts, he said.
___Karle said the ordinance could be applied to such plays as "Hair" and "Equus," which include nudity. He acknowledged, however, "Equus" had been presented in Erie but he had not challenged it. His office did not receive a complaint about the performance, he said.
___Nude dancing is a form of expression and "has become a staple" of American culture, Weston said, citing a total of 3,000 "adult clubs" in the U.S.Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!