Strippers and the Supreme Court

A story about teen strippers and the law is difficult enough for any legal blogger to resist. But because this particular teen stripper story has a Supreme Court connection, I feel a pedagogical obligation to share.

The Providence Journal reports that 16-year-olds are legally permitted to dance at Rhode Island strip clubs. Sheepish local authorities note that while child labor laws protect teen strippers from working too many hours (they need to be off the poles by 11:30 p.m.) no laws bar the practice. A city lawyer told the newspaper that, in any event, strip clubs enjoy some First Amendment protection. Since Providence has strip clubs, he added, the community doesn't consider the activity lewd (and therefore subject to constitutionally-permitted restrictions).

I pause to note that the Ocean State also allows prostitution – if it's indoors.

But I digress, and I apologize, since you are surely curious about the Constitutional dimensions of strip club law. Perhaps you wonder if the Supreme Court, which usually seems preoccupied with matters as described in this must-read New York Times article could possibly rule on nude dancing cases? Well, consider the 1991 ruling in Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc. in which a divided court, while upholding an Indiana law that barred completely nude dancing, recognized that the art form was entitled to some form of First Amendment protection. For much, much more on the too-rarely reviewed state of nude dancing law, look here.