SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — The city of Sandy Springs, which has feuded with adult entertainment clubs since incorporating 12 years ago, now finds one of its fights at the Georgia Supreme Court.
Maxim Cabaret, now known as The Coronet Club, is challenging the city with its prohibition of strip clubs and other adult establishments from holding a license to sell alcohol, and limits where they can be located.
Attorneys for the Maxim argued Monday in front of the nine justices of the Georgia Supreme Court that such limits are unconstitutional. It will likely be several months before justices issue a ruling in the Sandy Springs case, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Maxim had been open since 1992 under numerous doing-business-as names, and was granted an alcohol license in 2003 by Fulton County, according to Maxim counsel.
But when Sandy Springs incorporated in 2005, town leaders moved to ban alcohol consumption where there is adult entertainment.
Maxim attorney Cory Goldsmith Begner, according to the Journal-Constitution report, argued that the Sandy Springs laws have been “like a moving target for 12 years” as the city amended its ordinances to respond to legal complaints.
In addition to the Maxim case, two other clubs — Mardi Gras and Flashers — have challenged the constitutionality of the ordinances in federal court.
Both clubs lost at the 11th Circuit Court, and both have petitioned for a U.S. Supreme Court review.
