The Dallas Morning News
By Everton Bailey Jr.
​​​​​​​7:15 AM on Apr 10, 2024 CDT

Dallas is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by three strip clubs that want to be exempt from shutting down at 2 a.m. if they stop featuring sex work.

In a motion brief filed Friday, city attorneys argued the lawsuit filed in January by the owners of XTC Cabaret, Silver City, and Tiger Cabaret “is an obvious attempt to avoid the impact” of a city ordinance requiring all strip clubs and other sexually oriented businesses to close between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.

Lawyers for the city contended the ordinance applies to sexually-oriented businesses regardless of what services they happen to be providing at any given time, and that the strip clubs haven’t sufficiently proven that the rule is a constitutional violation.

The lawyers representing the three strip clubs didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

“The ordinance does not state that (a sexually oriented business) must cease only sexually-oriented activities between the hours of 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., but states clearly that an SOB must close for business each day during those hours,” said the city’s brief, filed by City Attorney Tammy Palomino and two assistant city attorneys in her office. The hours restriction is “motivated by the city’s substantial governmental interest in addressing crime at SOB locations, not the expressive conduct itself,” the motion said.

The three strip clubs have said in court filings they believe they were illegally threatened with sanctions by police when they decided to stay open past 2 a.m. They stopped featuring erotic dances and were mainly offering food and non-alcoholic drinks to customers who chose to stick around. The businesses also alleged the city was violating their constitutional and civil rights.

A federal judge in February denied the strip clubs’ request to temporarily block the city from enforcing the ordinance.

The Dallas City Council approved the hours restriction in January 2022 after police and city officials said it would help decrease violence and the amount of emergency calls that occur mainly at or near strip clubs. The rules apply not only to strip clubs, but also adult book stores, adult video stores, and other adult entertainment stores.

City enforcement was blocked by a federal judge in May 2022 stemming from a separate lawsuit filed against Dallas because of the restrictions. That decision was then overturned by an appeals court in October 2023, and the city began enforcing the restriction in November.

The U.S. Supreme Court last month denied a petition to review the case.

There were previously no restrictions. Some Dallas strip clubs were open until 6 a.m. and some stores were open 24 hours.

Deputy City Manager Jon Fortune told members of the City Council’s public safety committee in February that Dallas’ more than 30 sexually oriented businesses were largely complying with the new rules, but two had been sanctioned for violating the ordinance.