The court decided that the law, which also disallows contact between dancers and customers, "didn't ban sexually oriented businesses of any type," the Star reports. "Rather, it seeks to reduce negative secondary effects associated with such businesses, including detrimental health and sanitary conditions, prostitution and drug-related crimes both inside and outside these locations, as well as deterioration of the surrounding neighborhoods," the ruling said.
The ruling is the latest setback for the nude-club industry. Last year, The Pitch wrote exhaustively about former state Sen. Matt Bartle's war on exposed dancers. Owners were concerned that dancers would leave the state, and suddenly Kansas looked to club owners like a lawless land of flaunted areolas.
Dick Bryant, attorney for the club owners who sued over the law, told the Associated Press, "We believe the decision is a major erosion of rights of free expression afforded under the constitutions of Missouri and the United States."
The club owners are now considering taking their case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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