A federal judge says she will decide in about a week whether to stop Dallas from requiring sexually oriented businesses to close between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. daily.
Attorneys for XTC Cabaret, Silver City Cabaret and Tiger Cabaret told U.S. District Judge Jane Boyle the ordinance and measures taken by police and city officials to enforce it are unconstitutional.
Their clients are seeking an injunction that would prevent Dallas from enforcing the curfew. This is the second federal challenge to the ordinance since it first took effect in January 2022.
Sexually oriented businesses are defined in city code as any business that offers services or products “intended to provide sexual stimulation or sexual gratification to the customer.” That includes adult bookstores, video stores, cabarets and other similar businesses.
Some residents told council members when the ordinance was first passed that the curfew would threaten jobs and be a "cultural harm to our city's LGBT community."
“There’s hundreds of people, their livelihoods are being affected,” Casey Wallace, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said at the preliminary injunction hearing on Monday. “They’re being put out of work.”
The city officially began enforcing the curfew Nov. 30 after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s temporary restraining order on the law. According to court documents, Dallas police sent out a notice ahead of time letting XTC Cabaret know they were to close during the required hours or face a 30-day suspension of their license, up to $4,000 in fines and potentially criminal charges.
Attorneys told police XTC was willing to comply by not operating as a sexually oriented business after 2 a.m. The club would just serve food and non-alcoholic drinks to those who stayed and only occasionally put on artistic, nonsexual shows in that time.
Police replied that XTC would need a new certificate of occupancy to operate as a restaurant. Even then, the club would be required to close at 2 a.m. because it’s still licensed as a sexually oriented business.
Silver City received a similar notice from police, but attorneys argue the club has a dance hall license and a late-hour permit, therefore it can operate until 4 a.m. daily except Sunday.
Boyle denied the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order in February. She wrote it was a “close call,” but the plaintiffs weren’t likely to succeed on that front based on any of their constitutional claims.
Dallas police presented data to officials in 2022 showing from 2019 to 2021, police received more calls to sexually oriented businesses between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. than between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. Police also presented studies concluding sexually oriented businesses have been associated with higher crime rates.
One police officer said Monday he believed enforcement of the ordinance has contributed to a decrease in crimes reported to a federal database that tracks crimes nationwide.
Ben Allen, attorney for the clubs, said that while there are studies that outline the secondary, negative effects of adult entertainment, "that's not true for the activity we’re trying to engage in."
Assistant City Attorney Kathleen Fones said monitoring how sexually oriented businesses technically operate from hour to hour is “simply not a workable way to enforce the ordinance.” Officers testified doing so would require more manpower on top of already intensive investigations of crime hotspots.
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