FW/PBS, Inc. v. City of Dallas
Headline: Court limits city licensing of sexually oriented businesses, blocks enforcement without prompt inspections and judicial review, affecting adult bookstores, theaters, motels, and similar businesses.
Holding: The Court ruled that Dallas' licensing scheme is unconstitutional as applied to First Amendment‑protected sexually oriented businesses because it lacks reasonable time limits for approvals and fails to assure prompt judicial review.
- Stops Dallas from denying licenses without timely inspections or court review for protected adult businesses.
- Leaves motel short‑rental rule intact, so some motels still face regulation.
- Dismisses challenges to civil‑disability and residency rules for lack of standing.
Summary
Background
The city of Dallas adopted an ordinance regulating "sexually oriented businesses" through zoning, licensing, and inspections. The rule covered adult bookstores, video stores, theaters, cabarets, motels renting rooms under ten hours, and related businesses, and included civil disability and residency bars for some applicants. Several businesses sued, and the District Court and Fifth Circuit struck or modified certain provisions before the case reached the Supreme Court.
Reasoning
The Court asked whether the licensing scheme functioned as a government pre-approval of speech that lacked necessary safeguards. It held that, as applied to businesses selling materials protected by the First Amendment, the ordinance is unconstitutional because it allows indefinite delay: inspections required before a license can issue are not time‑limited and there is no guaranteed prompt judicial review. Drawing on Freedman v. Maryland, the Court required a specified reasonable decision period and prompt court review, but declined to require the city to bear the initial burden of going to court in every case. The Court therefore invalidated the licensing requirement for First Amendment‑protected enterprises while remanding questions about severability.
Real world impact
The ruling prevents Dallas from enforcing its licensing process against businesses that sell constitutionally protected material unless the city fixes the timing and review procedures. The Court upheld the motel short‑rental classification and rejected some standing challenges: it found no petitioner with standing to attack the civil‑disability and cohabitation provisions, and those parts were vacated for lack of jurisdiction. The case was remanded for further proceedings.
Dissents or concurrances
Justices differed: Brennan would have required all three Freedman safeguards; White and Scalia would have allowed the ordinance as a valid time/place/manner or as targeting pandering and therefore constitutional.
Opinions in this case:
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