A Missouri lawmaker is sponsoring a new bill that would regulate adult businesses’ hours of operation, impose zoning restrictions and raise the age limit of patrons and employees from 18 to 21.
A U.S. District Court has shot down the latest challenge to a Missouri law that bars sexually oriented businesses from advertising on highway billboards.
Attorney General Jay Nixon has slapped several billing and telecom companies with a lawsuit accusing them of fraudulently charging consumers for accessing adult websites they never actually accessed and making international long distance calls they never actually made.
A battle that has been heating up all year over a Missouri law regulating adult businesses is finally coming to a head as adult business owners, employees and patrons have filed suit in Cole County Circuit Court to strike down the statute before it takes effect Aug. 28.
A retailer is challenging a Missouri law that bars some advertising on billboards. John Haltom, who owns the Johnny O’s and Doctor Johns chains, says that businesses such as his are “unconstitutionally and unreasonably designated as 'sexually oriented businesses' under the law.”
Billboards advertising a chain of lingerie stores that also sell adult videos, novelties and games have been removed and all future highway advertising for Johnnie O’s has been banned.
A bill aimed at regulating sexually-oriented businesses received approval from the Missouri senate and now faces one more round of voting before it reaches the House. Bill SB 32 seeks to curtail the freedoms currently afforded to strip clubs and adult video retail outlets.
According to reports, two separate bills were recently approved by the state House and Senate that aim to ban the majority of highway billboards, which in certain parts of the state have become a public nuisance.
