Topics / LAW : New Anti-Strip Club Tactic

Long Beach officials have come up with a new tactic in their effort to run topless clubs out of town.

The City Council, which reluctantly loosened its law regulating adult businesses in the wake of recent court decisions, has decided to take a stab at amending the U.S. Constitution to exclude topless and nude dancing from the 1st Amendment provision allowing free expression.

The council approved a resolution urging the National League of Cities to lobby Congress to approve the amendment.

“We need to restore sanity to the courts’ interpretations of the 1st Amendment,” said Councilman Douglas S. Drummond, who led the effort. “Walking down the street without clothes on is not freedom of expression, it’s outrageous behavior.”

Councilman Alan S. Lowenthal cast the lone dissenting vote. “When we begin to deal with 1st Amendment rights, we open ourselves to potential censorship,” he said.

Lowenthal said he recognizes that cities have a problem regulating topless bars, “but it should be dealt with at the local level.”

The League of Cities may take up the Long Beach proposal at the group’s four-day annual conference beginning today in Minneapolis.

“I don’t know the likelihood of it being passed,” league spokesman Randy Arndt said. “It’s up to all the other cities.”

Drummond said he is aware that a proposed amendment faces an uphill battle. Constitutional amendments first must be proposed by two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate, then must be ratified by legislatures in three-fourths of the states.

Attorney Roger Jon Diamond, who represents about 60 adult businesses throughout Southern California, including Angels, the only topless club in Long Beach, criticized the council’s new effort.

“It’s frightening that elected officials would want to take away one of our freedoms,” he said. “The next thing you know they’ll try to take away our guns.”

Drummond said he also plans to lobby for a state law prohibiting topless dancing wherever alcoholic beverages are sold. “That would be a lot simpler (than amending the Constitution),” he said.

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the rights of states to deny liquor licenses to businesses featuring topless and nude dancing, but California bans alcohol only when dancers are completely nude.