Texas Law Banning Strip Club Workers Under 21 Survives Challenge

Texas’s law banning people under 21 from working in strip clubs is constitutional, a federal judge said.

The law, which bars employment of people ages 18 to 20 at “sexually oriented businesses,” steers clear of violating Texans’ First Amendment rights, Judge Robert Pitman, of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, said.

Pitman found that the state defendants “introduced substantial, credible evidence linking SOBs to sex trafficking,” with each legislative chamber considering “hundreds of pages of testimony and exhibits linking sex trafficking, at least in part, to SOBs.”

Texas passed the law (S.B. 315) ...