Stripper, adult establishments sue Florida over new age restriction

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A 19-year-old stripper is suing Florida, alleging a new state law raising the age requirements for her profession not only made her lose her job but also violated her constitutional rights.

The law, which took effect on Monday, requires those working at strip clubs and other adult entertainment establishments to be at least 21 years old. Employers found in violation could face criminal penalties.

Joining her in the lawsuit, which was filed Monday before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, are strip clubs and a lingerie store.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in signing the bill (HB 7063) into law earlier this year, said it would combat human trafficking. But the plaintiffs refute the link between trafficking and their establishments.

"The ban on performers under the age of twenty-one is not narrowly tailored and does not advance the asserted government interest commensurate with the burden on free speech," they argued.

Who is suing and why?

Serenity Michelle Bushey was a nude dancer at Café Risque, a strip club near Gainesville in Alachua County. Since she's 19 years old, she's now out of a job, as are at least eight others at her former workplace, according to the lawsuit.

Bushey says that violates her First Amendment right to express herself.

"As with similar performers around the state, Bushey earned her living through her art while providing entertainment for the benefit and enjoyment of her audience," the complaint said. "Plaintiffs maintain that the human body is a thing of beauty which, when combined with music and rhythmic motion in the form of dance, conveys an important message of eroticism."

The corporation operating Café Risque is also suing. So is a company that runs Sinsations, a strip club in Jacksonville, Florida.

In the lawsuit, both said they haven't only employed adult dancers younger than 21 but also cooks, waitresses, barbacks, DJs, and security personnel. They also believe the law prevents them from contracting out work to those younger than drinking age, even for something such as air conditioning repair.

Exotic Fantasies in Jacksonville has the same concern, though it's not a strip club. It not only sells lingerie but also a "modest amount" of adult movies and sexual devices, according to the lawsuit. It doesn't offer any live entertainment or movie screenings, and it doesn't permit use of what it sells on its premises.

Still, because it falls under what state law considers to be an "adult entertainment establishment," it can't hire adult clerks younger than 21 years old, which it has in the past and says it wishes to do in the future.

"Café Risque, Sinsations, and Exotic Fantasies have the right to select the adult staff and employees of their choosing to assist in the dissemination of their speech, without regard to age," the plaintiffs argued, who are being represented by Gainesville-based First Amendment attorney Gary Edinger.

They accuse the law of violating their First Amendment rights to speech and association.

What First Amendment laws took effect?:New laws that involve the First Amendment are soon taking effect in Florida

"(It) is not narrowly tailored nor did the Legislature even consider any less restrictive form of regulation (and it) unreasonably burdens speech without measurably advancing any significant governmental interest," they wrote. "Plaintiffs have a right to associate with adults of their own choosing, including the right to employ and contract with those adults."

They also say it's unconstitutionally overbroad, citing how the law affects not just strip clubs but places like Exotic Fantasies, and unconstitutionally vague.

They additionally charge it with violating the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, writing that it "irrationally allows adult entertainment establishments to admit adults under the age of twenty-one as patrons while excluding performers, contractors and employees of comparable age."

Under the law, employers who "knowingly" hire workers younger than 21 years old at adult entertainment establishments would face criminal penalties. Those criminal penalties would go as high as a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years behind bars if that worker performs nude.

But the language also emphasizes that "a person’s ignorance of another person’s age or a person’s misrepresentation of his or her age may not be raised as a defense in a prosecution." 

"(That) allows for conviction and incarceration even if the accused made a diligent effort to discover the true age of an applicant but was thwarted by skillful fraud and deception on the part of the applicant," the lawsuit reads.

Named as defendants are Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody as well as two state attorneys — Brian Kramer and Melissa Nelson. They're responsible for enforcing the challenged law.

Kramer's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment; Nelson's office said she doesn't comment on pending litigation. But Moody spokesperson Kylie Mason said in an email, "We have not been served, but we will defend the law."

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A similar case also going through the courts

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to rule soon on a Jacksonville dancer age restriction ordinance, a decision that could set a First Amendment precedent on age-based regulation of expression – and a decision that could potentially knock down such restrictions, as previously reported by the USA TODAY Network-Florida.

During the Jacksonville litigation, it came out that “no arrest for human trafficking has ever been made in an exotic dance establishment” in the city, according to court records. A federal judge upheld the ordinance anyway, and it remains in effect awaiting the appeals court's decision.

"The State considered no evidence or studies supporting the notion that human trafficking is associated with adult entertainment establishments or that trafficking is more common in such establishments," the plaintiffs wrote in the latest lawsuit. "Or, to the extent that such information was considered, it consisted of shoddy data which is insufficient to support the asserted government interests."

But supporters of the law have alleged businesses like strip clubs are dens for human trafficking, especially of young women. And some made it clear that the targeting of trafficking wasn't the only goal.

"My vision for the young women of Florida is to not work in the adult entertainment (industry) but rather get a job, an education and career and have a good quality of life," said Florida Rep. Carolina Amesty, a Windermere Republican and bill sponsor, at the bill signing event.

This reporting content is supported by a partnership with Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. USA Today Network-Florida First Amendment reporter Douglas Soule can be reached at [email protected].