11th Circuit - Adult Entertainment - 1st Amendment - 4th Amendment - Preemption Let's start today's synopsis with a direct quote from the court - "After a thirteen-year-old victim of human trafficking performed at the City of Miami Beach ("the City")'s only fully nude strip club, Club Madonna, Inc. ("the Club"), the City came down hard on the Club. It enacted two closely intertwined ordinances (collectively, "the Ordinance") that required all nude strip clubs to follow a record-keeping and identification-checking regime in order to ensure that each individual performer is at least eighteen years old -- the records of which the City could demand to see at any time -- or face stiff penalties." 13 years old! Now, as to the law - Does the law implicate the First Amendment in imposing strict record keeping requirements on the establishment to ensure that its performers are of legal age? Yes, because the law is not of general applicability and only targets adult entertainment establishments and its performers, the court concludes it implicates the First Amendment, but as both parties agreed it only required intermediate scrutiny. Under that analysis the law was deemed narrowly tailored and survives. What about the requirement that the records be available to the city on demand? Because the business is a highly regulated one and because the court concludes that the "on demand" feature of the ordinance only applies when the business is open or administrative staff available to respond, the requirement survives 4th Amendment scrutiny. The city loses however under IRCA in its requirements that the employer assure that its workers are legal. From the concurring judge, a brief statement that caught my attention and states well my view of things "And if there is any fixed star in my own constitutional constellation, cf. W. Va. Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 642 (1943), it's that unelected, unaccountable federal judges shouldn't make stuff up." Club Madonna vs City of Miami Beach, 202014292.pdf (uscourts.gov)<https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202014292.pdf> Charles W. Thompson, Jr. Of Counsel P: (202) 466-5424 x7110 M: (240) 876-6790 D: (202) 742-1016 [facebook icon]<https://www.facebook.com/InternationalMunicipalLawyersAssociation/>[twitter icon]<https://twitter.com/imlalegal>[linkedin icon]<https://www.linkedin.com/company/international-municipal-lawyers-association-inc./> [logo]<https://imla.org/> 51 Monroe St. Suite 404 Rockville, MD, 20850 www.imla.org<http://www.imla.org/> Plan Ahead! IMLA's 2022 Mid-Year Seminar<https://imla.org/seminars/>, April 8-11, 2022 in Washington, D.C.! IMLA's 2022 Annual<https://imla.org/annual-conference/> Conference, October 19-23, 2022 in Portland, OR! Check out our On-Demand webinar library<https://netforum.avectra.com/eweb/shopping/shopping.aspx?site=imla&webcode=shopping&cart=0&shopsearchCat=Merchandise&productCat=Webinar> with 100+ webinars at your fingertips.