The days may be numbered for Prince George’s County strip clubs after the general assembly passed a bill this week giving all Maryland cities the power to shut down businesses with nudity and sexual displays.
The bill grants each municipality in the state the power to control adult clubs’ locations and licensing, a power College Park City councilwoman Karen Hampton said she thought most county municipalities would use to ban strip clubs.
After being passed back and forth between the House and Senate in the final days of the legislative session, the bill passed with two House amendments Tuesday, including one increasing the penalty for violating strip club regulations from a $25 fine to a minimum $500 fine and a maximum sentence of six months in prison.
The legislation represents the latest push in a battle Prince George’s County officials have waged for years for the right to ban strip clubs.
“I’ve had the nudity bill, as I call it, in session for two or three years,” said Del. Mary Conroy, (D-Prince George’s) who sponsored the penalty increase.
“We have a problem [with strip clubs] in Prince George’s,” she said. “All the municipalities … they wanted this.”
In 2003, the Prince George’s County Council adopted a law at the county level to place restrictions on adult clubs but was forced to repeal it when threatened with a free-speech lawsuit by Larry Bledsoe, co-owner of Showcase Theater, an adult club about 10 minutes from the university.
Bledsoe, who serves as a vice president of the unified Maryland, Virginia and Washington chapters of the Free Speech Coalition, referenced the 1991 Barnes v. Glen case, in which the Supreme Court ruled nude dancing a form of expression protected under the First Amendment.
Tom Hendershot, Prince George’s County councilman for District 3 — which includes the university — said the council’s attorney advised it would be cheaper to repeal the law and rewrite it than fight a costly legal battle over constitutionality.
The exact number of strip clubs operating in the county is unknown. Many local strip clubs are unlicensed, “fly-by-night” operations, Bledsoe said.
“One [strip club] is too many,” said Hampton, who also serves as vice president of the Prince George’s County Municipal Association. The PGCMA appointed the bill a legislative priority this year, and Conroy credited the bill’s success in part to the PGCMA’s lobbying efforts in the Senate.
The American Association of Nude Recreation proposed an amendment that would have protected nudists, but it was dropped in the House.
“We will watch and see what happens,” said Patricia Orner, government affairs coordinator for the AANR. “Should any of our members be charged, we will take action at that time.”
The bill awaits Gov. Bob Ehrlich’s (R) signature. Ehrlich’s press secretary, Shareese DeLeaver, said the governor has not yet taken a position on the bill.
