Texas ‘Latex Clubs’ Defeat Sexually-Oriented Business Fee

Texas’ “clothing rule,” expanding a fee imposed on all-nude adult entertainment businesses to clubs whose dancers cover their breasts with latex, is an unconstitutional content-based restriction, the Fifth Circuit said.

The state’s comptroller of public accounts didn’t produce evidence demonstrating that the restriction was intended to control or reduce the “deleterious” effects of “latex clubs"—clubs where the dancers appear partially clothed to avoid the state’s tax on clubs with nude dancing, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said.

The appeals court affirmed a trial court’s summary judgment for the Texas Entertainment Association Inc., which argued the fee ...