A nightclub's owners here have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a county ordinance banning table dancing at adult entertainment clubs.
DCR, Inc., the nightclub, and one club dancer have challenged the 1994 law as a violation of free expression rights and the Washington state constitution's free speech provision, says the First Amendment Center.
However, the high court may defer hearing the DCR case until it rules in a pending nude dancing case, Erie PA v. Pap's A.M.
The law mandates all nude dancing should take place on an eighteen-inch high platform no closer than ten feet from any club patron. Almost a year ago, the state court of appeals ruled the law a constitutional way to control "harmful, secondary effects" of adult businesses, the First Amendment Center says. The state Supreme Court declined to review that ruling.
DCR tells the Center the nation's highest court needs to use the case to address some unanswered questions regarding how far the First Amendment protects nude dancing.
