Showtime Ent., LLC v. Town of Mendon
Annotate this CaseThe Town of Mendon adopted a bylaw prohibiting the sale or presence of alcohol at adult entertainment establishments. Showtime Entertainment, LLC, which sought to operate an adult entertainment establishment within the Town and to serve alcohol on the premises, brought suit in federal court seeking to invalidate the bylaw. The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit certified questions to the Supreme Judicial Court focusing on parts of the test employed to determine the constitutionality of “content-neutral” restrictions on expressive behavior as first outlined in United States v. O’Brien. The Supreme Judicial Court answered (1) the Town in this case utilized evidence sufficient to demonstrate a countervailing State interest to justify the restriction at issue; but (2) the bylaw was not adequately tailored to pursue the Town’s goal of crime prevention.
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