Monroe, La. Moves to Regulate Adult Businesses

The town of Monroe, Louisiana is the latest to take up the cause of regulating sexually oriented businesses under the guise of stemming “adverse secondary effects.” (source)

[The] ordinance states that no sexually oriented business shall operate within 1,500 feet of a public park, library, nonprofit educational museum, a church of synagogue, public or private schools, day care centers, another sexually oriented business. (source)

To lawfully restrict these First Amendment protected businesses, municipalities must show that the regulations are designed to address the “adverse secondary effects” of sexually oriented businesses, and that the regulations will not simply address those effects by wiping out such businesses altogether. I question how having a sexually oriented business 1250 feet away from a church will cause greater “secondary effects” than having it 1600 feet from the church. This seems to be more religious pandering than a valid attempt to improve conditions in Monroe.

The comments to the story are pretty funny. For example, this one by “rockchunker“:

Please, somebody name one KNOWN secondary effect. Not some B.S. anecdote of some weenie wagging perv your cousin’s friend’s sister claims to have seen.

Let’s have an actual case of a PROVEN regular, consistent secondary effect of the existence of such a business within a city.

Waste. Of. Time.