Appeals Court considers case of regulation for Doctor John's in Roy
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1 Comment [ View ]The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY -- It's not a sex shop, it's a "romance-enhancement" store. That's the description an attorney for Doctor John's Lingerie and Novelty Boutique offered after an appeals court hearing Wednesday that focused on the technical requirements for, ahem, adult content shops.
"We say we're mostly a lingerie store for women," lawyer Andrew McCullough said. "Our customers also are buying platform shoes."
Doctor John's is fighting the city of Roy's demand that it submit to local regulation.
Former U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell ruled in 2004 that Roy had a right to require Doctor John's to get a sexually oriented business license.
The license would limit the hours of Doctor John's around-the-clock operations and require the stores to check the criminal background of every new hire, McCullough said.
Doctor John's also sells X-rated movies and sex toys.
"We don't object to them selling that, as long as we can regulate how they sell it," said Robert Keller, an attorney for Roy.
During the hearing, Keller argued that Doctor John's stores have a "secondary effect" on their neighborhoods -- call it the creep element. Research, he explained, shows such businesses become magnets for prostitution, drug dealing and assorted other crimes.
At issue was whether Cassell properly weighed the research offered by Roy to justify its regulation of Doctor John's.
The judges didn't make an immediate decision. It typically takes the Denver-based appeals court several months to issue an opinion.
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