Unless it involves a pole.
And here he is!
Posted on 02/23/2007 4:18:57 AM PST by ShadowDancer
Social Dancing Banned In New York
Appeals Court Rules Ban Is Constitutional
POSTED: 9:22 pm EST February 22, 2007
NEW YORK -- Should you find yourself in a bar in New York City, and the music playing makes you want to get up and dance, please resist the urge.
A state court on Thursday upheld the city's Prohibition-era law that bans social dancing in bars, restaurants and certain clubs.
Those who like to get up and boogie sued, arguing the law illegally infringes on their right of free expression. The city's Cabaret Law, which was enacted 80 years ago, bans social dancing in all but specially licensed venues.
The Gotham West Coast Swing Club and several people filed a lawsuit complaining that because the Cabaret Law barred them from dancing with other people, it illegally infringed on their right of free expression.
The appeals court disagreed, saying recreational dancing is not a form of expression protected by the federal or state constitutions.
Plaintiffs lawyer Norman Siegel said he was "very disappointed" by the decision and is considering an appeal.
Oh, LOL! I was a Southern Baptist once a long time ago!
Welcome to neoliberal urbanism.
Absolutely right. It isn't protected "speech." Although, I don't buy the "free expression" garbage either. The founders were very specific. They protected speech against Congressional intervention and they also specifically protected "the press." If they had meant "expression" to mean "speech" then they wouldn't have singled out written communication.
Yup.
Unless it involves a pole.
And here he is!
Good points. I forgot this was New York.
My perspective was from the over-regulation that is being heaped upon us from all of the legislative and regulatory bodies. How we can claim to be the "land of the free" with a straight face is beyond me.
Lech Walesa can dance at my house ANY time. :-)
Let's hope so.
Right after the teats, er, I mean feats, of strength.
BTTT
Our Pole dances are all in honor of Field Marshall Pilsudski.
That's why Baptists won't have sex standing up, you know.
Somebody might think they were dancing.
There was a bill recently in NJ to keep cover bands from playing without separate copyright licenses for the songs they were going to play.
You can assemble. But once you start dancing, the jackboots call the cops and you get a ticket. You should have heard the people calling into the local radio station.
So is anti-social dancing still OK?
If they branded it "free expression," doesn't that mean the bar owners wouldn't be able to ban it? Can you imagine every bar turning into a dancefloor? It's hard enough to navigate the average bar now without getting an elbow in your eyeball.
You're right. There and are still good reasons behind these laws.
Originally (in the twenties) the cabaret laws were written to crack down on drug use, and then with prohibition, alcohol.
Musicians and other performers were required to have a cabaret card. And some whose morals were suspect were denied. (This was only changed in the late 1960s.)
With rock and roll and the amplification of sound, the laws were changed to zone cabarets out of the residential neighborhoods and into the industrial areas.
With "gentrification" in the late 1970s and through the 1980s these areas also became residential, and that is when the zoning was again changed/tightened, with new restrictions on the cabarets -- mostly for noise reasons.
The laws are probably ham-handed, but that is the primary reasoning behind them.
But it's always amusing to see people pontificate without any information whatsoever, isn't it?
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