Nude Bar Owner, Patron Opposed to Being Exposed Bare Grievances Before the Bar
by Ed Thomas
September 8, 2005
(AgapePress) - Pro-family activists are facing two lawsuits filed against them in response to protests against a local Oregon strip club. However, an attorney for the defendants says it was perfectly legal for them to exercise their First Amendment rights through their forms of protest.The owner and a patron of Club 71, a nude bar in Sunny Valley, Oregon, have brought lawsuits claiming "severe emotional distress" against 14 pro-family demonstrators who opposed the establishment. The defendants picketed outside the nightclub with signs and also took photographs of faces and license plates, then posted the photos on an Internet website called SeeWhosThere.com. It was this action that prompted the lawsuits.
The American Family Association Center for Law & Policy is representing the defendants. And according to AFA Law Center chief counsel Steve Crampton, everything his clients did was within their constitutionally protected rights, including "holding their signs, talking to the people going in, trying to plead with them not to frequent this business," and even "taking some of the photos, posting them on a website, which they have every right to do."
Crampton doubts the strip club owner and patron can prevail in court against the peaceful, pro-family demonstrators. Disagreeing against peaceful protest and being embarrassed by the protesters' website are not grounds that he thinks will win the plaintiff's cases.
The Law Center spokesman notes that even though Club 71 and businesses have the legal right to operate wherever zoning allows, in many such areas families and concerned citizens do not welcome their presence and influence.
"Yes, the law permits these businesses to open," the attorney says, "but by the same token, it permits nice, faithful citizens such as our clients the right to get onto the sidewalk and let their views be known -- that they are not in favor of these kinds of businesses in their community."
Crampton says he will be presenting that argument soon in the AFA Law Center's answer to the recently filed lawsuits.
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
