Game On for Gentleman’s Playground Suit Against N.C. Town

A North Carolina town’s licensing requirements for “sexually oriented businesses” is unconstitutional because they’re too broad, a federal appeals court held April 27.

“Declaring a statute unconstitutionally overbroad” is “strong medicine,” and should be done “only as a last resort,” Judge James A. Wynn Jr. wrote for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

But Rocky Mount’s ordinance warrants this treatment because its license denial provision gives the police chief too much discretion, the court said.

Gentleman’s Playground, a club featuring exotic dancers wearing “scant attire,” sued the town after it wanted to enforce the ordinance against the ...