Texas ‘Sexually Oriented Business’ Job Age Challenge Advances

A lawsuit can proceed challenging under the First Amendment’s free expression clause recent changes to a Texas law prohibiting people under age 21 from working in “sexually oriented” businesses, a federal judge in Austin held.

But the four workers and a nonprofit representing those kinds of businesses in the state failed to allege plausible due process and equal protection challenges to the law, S.B. 315, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas said.

The law amended the Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code, the state Labor Code, and the Texas Penal Code. It applies to workers between ...