Strip Club News

County commissioners in Lawrence County, Missouri, are planning a ballot initiative to discourage strip clubs from opening in the area. Their planned weapon: excessive taxation.

Currently, there are no gentlemen’s clubs in Lawrence County. The freedom stealing politicians aim to keep it that way by levying a 10% tax on a strip club’s gross income should any come to the area. The proposal would only apply to strip clubs, thus it is nothing more than politicians using the power of government to rob consenting adults of their court-affirmed rights to enjoy nude entertainment.

Residents of the county will vote on the proposed tax on April 8th. If it passes, it will be temporary and need to be renewed again in another four years.

More and more, governments are using their power of taxation to injure the ability of strip clubs to do business, of dancers to make a living, and to punish the millions of law-abiding people who enjoy the live entertainment they find at strip clubs. At the top of the year Texas began a $5 per head tax on strip club patrons. New Mexico is considering a similar tax. Other states are looking at proposals along the same vein.

If the citizenry does not want strip clubs to exist, they won’t exist because the clubs won’t have any customers and will go out of business. The people will vote with their dollar. It’s as simple as that.

Hopefully, state and federal courts will put a stop to this tactic of using taxation as a weapon against free expression. Otherwise, the United States will be regressing back to an era where the human body was viewed as shameful instead of beautiful. If this assault on strip clubs continues, you can rest assured that similar tactics will be used against other forms of speech that politicians and their vocal constituents wish to suppress.

We are on a slippery slope toward oppression. The enemies are on both the left and the right. A revolution at the ballot box may not be enough this time around.

On 12/19/2006 the Missouri Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision striking down a state law that barred nude dancing and touching between dancers and customers.

The law banned full nudity, imposed a requirment that dancers stay at least 10 feet from customers and remain behind a rail, barred dancers from touching customers, and required both patrons and dancers to be at least 21 years of age.

The law never took effect because the lower court struck it down days before it was to go into effect back in August 2005.

The Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional because it had a “change of purpose” as it made its way through the legislature. The strip club restrictions were tacked on to a bill that dealt with intoxicated driving offenses. The court ruling did not weigh whether or not the law infringed on constitutional rights. It is likely that the sponsor of the law, Republican state Senator Matt Bartle, will try again to harm the strip club industry and waste even more taxpayer dollars attempting to elminate something the courts have ruled is a constitutional right for decades now.

In Sept. of 2006 the Missouri Supreme Court will hear the state’s appeal of a 2005 lower court ruling striking down a 2005 restriction on strip clubs. The law prohibited full nudity, required dancers to stay at least 10 feet from customers, and required all dancers and customers to be at least 21 years of age. The lower court invalidated the law saying that the age restriction is unconstitutional because it violates free speech rights of dancers and customers. The state is arguing that the age restriction is valid because it attempts to deal with “adverse effects” (whatever those are) of sexually oriented businesses.