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Nude Dance at Club by Underage Girl ruled "Artistic" 1st Amendment Expression
LifeSiteNews ^ | 8/7/08 | Hilary White

Posted on 08/07/2008 4:09:45 PM PDT by wagglebee

HAMBURG, Iowa, August 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Nude dancing in strip clubs is "artistic" even when performed by an under age girl, according to an Iowa judge in a ruling issued late last month. Fremont County Judge Timothy O'Grady called the strip club a "theatre" and agreed with the club owner who argued that the state's indecency law does not apply to "theater, concert hall, art center, museum, or similar establishments."

Hamburg, Iowa, a town of 1,200 just across the Missouri River from Nebraska, has one strip club. After the 17-year-old niece of the local Sherriff, Steven MacDonald, did a nude dance at the club, the owner, Clarence Judy, was charged with violating Iowa's public indecent exposure law.

In a one-day trial on July 17, Judy's lawyer said, "Dance has been considered one of the arts, as is sculpture, painting and anything else like that. What Clarence has is a club where people can come and perform."

Fremont County Attorney Margaret Johnson responded that the case was straightforward: an underage girl danced naked at the club, which is illegal.

"Are you saying that minors can't be protected? Can a group of 12-year-olds come down and go in and dance nude and it's OK? I don't think that's what the Legislature had in mind when it made those additional provisions," Johnson said.

The judge ruled, however, that prosecutors failed to prove that the strip club does not qualify as a theatre.

"Given the First Amendment implications of a statute that may limit expression, it is not the role of the Court to judge the taste or quality of the art represented at Shotgun Geniez when determining whether or not it is a theater," he said.

The club has a "raised stage with specialized lighting" and "chairs and tables arranged for patrons to observe the stage presentations," as well as "a separate dressing area" for "performers."

"Shotgun Geniez is a facility for presentation of stage performances, and meets the definition of theatre," he said.

This recent ruling serves as further evidence of the increasing mainstream acceptance of sexual "dancing." Indeed, it is no longer unusual to find ads on the internet, in newspapers and magazines in Britain and North America offering lessons in lewd sexual dancing for housewives and young working women as an alternative to fitness classes.

Dance studios that offer classes in Tango, wedding and ballroom dancing now routinely offer pole dancing and strip dancing classes. A dance studio in Las Vegas advertises its pole dancing classes saying, "Strip away your inhibitions to a whole new FIT you! Learn new exotic dance moves on the floor to work up an incredible sweat and top it off with basic pole movements, tricks, and combinations for a work out you'll have fun with."


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Iowa
KEYWORDS: firstamendment; judiciary; moralabsolutes; nudedancing; performanceart
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"Given the First Amendment implications of a statute that may limit expression, it is not the role of the Court to judge the taste or quality of the art represented at Shotgun Geniez when determining whether or not it is a theater," he said.

It stripping you imbecile!

1 posted on 08/07/2008 4:09:46 PM PDT by wagglebee
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2 posted on 08/07/2008 4:10:12 PM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: wagglebee

Just when you thought the left’s rape of this country through the court system couldn’t get any lower, something like this happens. This judge needs to be permanently laid off.


3 posted on 08/07/2008 4:12:23 PM PDT by Always Right (Obama: more arrogant than Bill Clinton, more naive than Jimmy Carter, and more liberal than LBJ.)
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To: wagglebee

And the slide continues...


4 posted on 08/07/2008 4:13:08 PM PDT by Old Sarge (CTHULHU '08 - I won't settle for a lesser evil any longer!)
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To: wagglebee

Raaaaarrr!!! Idiots!


5 posted on 08/07/2008 4:13:32 PM PDT by rjp2005 (Lord have mercy on us)
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To: wagglebee

How can we decide without pictorial evidence?


6 posted on 08/07/2008 4:14:13 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: wagglebee

Couldn’t we all go to a theater to perform such things as snorting cocaine and claim freedom of speech?


7 posted on 08/07/2008 4:14:40 PM PDT by Always Right (Obama: more arrogant than Bill Clinton, more naive than Jimmy Carter, and more liberal than LBJ.)
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To: wagglebee

Gee, I guess they should have called it “theatre”

“The Rocky is covering the murder trial of Jon Phillips, who is accused of starving 7-year-old Chandler Grafner to death. Reporter Sue Lindsay will be sending live blog updates today”

(Denver, CO.)


8 posted on 08/07/2008 4:15:04 PM PDT by HankArcher ("When freedom expands to mean freedom of instinct and social destruction, then freedom is dead")
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To: tet68
How can we decide without pictorial evidence?

In this case the pictorial evidence could land us in federal prison on child pornography charges.

9 posted on 08/07/2008 4:15:45 PM PDT by Always Right (Obama: more arrogant than Bill Clinton, more naive than Jimmy Carter, and more liberal than LBJ.)
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To: wagglebee

If I knew my niece would be participating in this, you wouldn’t find me anywhere near the place. I will say that if I was the sheriff though, I’d probably take action to close the club down before it took place, if I could find a way to do it.


10 posted on 08/07/2008 4:16:37 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (We're a non Soros non lefitst supporting maverick Gang of 2, who won't be voting for McCain.)
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To: wagglebee

So according to this judge, if 6 year old boys and girls were dancing a nude ballet in a theater, that’s perfectly legal?


11 posted on 08/07/2008 4:16:47 PM PDT by lonevoice (John McCain was a Kinoki foot pad in the Reagan Revolution)
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To: wagglebee
I wonder if the transfusions that this girl just might need in a few years for her AIDS infection will also be seen by this clown as “artistic”.
12 posted on 08/07/2008 4:17:11 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Obama:"Ich bein ein beginner")
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To: wagglebee
I thought the prosecutor's job was to prove the law was broken. Not to prove the strip club is not a theatre. State law was broken. Let the defense appeal to a higher court to rule on the constitionality of the law.

I wonder if she was paid for her "artistic expression."

13 posted on 08/07/2008 4:17:39 PM PDT by Toadman ((molon labe))
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To: wagglebee
...the state's indecency law does not apply to "theater, concert hall, art center, museum, or similar establishments."

Coming this fall to a "theater" near you: A man having inappropriate relations with a horse, an 8-year old machete-wielding terrorist, and a drunken Senator relieving himself onstage.

14 posted on 08/07/2008 4:18:58 PM PDT by rfp1234 (Phodopus campbelli: household ruler since July 2007.)
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To: wagglebee
The judge ruled, however, that prosecutors failed to prove that the strip club does not qualify as a theatre.

... The club has a "raised stage with specialized lighting" and "chairs and tables arranged for patrons to observe the stage presentations," as well as "a separate dressing area" for "performers."

The strip club meets the same setting requirements as a court. So court is theater. Now I understand.

15 posted on 08/07/2008 4:19:03 PM PDT by LoneRangerMassachusetts
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To: lonevoice
So according to this judge, if 6 year old boys and girls were dancing a nude ballet in a theater, that’s perfectly legal?

Yep. Ridiculous.

16 posted on 08/07/2008 4:19:49 PM PDT by Toadman ((molon labe))
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To: wagglebee
"Shotgun Geniez is a facility for presentation of stage performances, and meets the definition of theatre," he said.

Okay, is the owner now willing to admit minors to enjoy the theatrical productions put on at his establishment? That's the natural progression of the judge's logic.

17 posted on 08/07/2008 4:24:34 PM PDT by coconutt2000 (NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
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To: wagglebee
This thing is not regulated as a strip club. They stopped selling liquor and changed their name to "theater" so they could get out of strip club regulation and go all nude. And they don't admit any patrons of the arts under age 18.

Website (NSWV): http://shotgungeniez.iowastripclubs.com/welcome.htm

18 posted on 08/07/2008 4:29:45 PM PDT by colorado tanker (Number nine, number nine, number nine . . .)
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To: LoneRangerMassachusetts
bingo...
19 posted on 08/07/2008 4:34:02 PM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist -CTHULHU/NYARLATHOTEP'08 = Nothing LESS!!!)
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To: wagglebee
"...it is not the role of the Court to judge the taste or quality of the art represented at Shotgun Geniez when determining whether or not it is a theater," he said.

If they serve alcohol they must have applied for a license. They would have been required to declare what type of business they are.

If they now want to claim to be a "theatre", revoke their liquor license.

20 posted on 08/07/2008 4:36:44 PM PDT by loboinok (Gun control is hitting what you aim at!)
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