The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear the city’s case versus the adult video store, Moon-Lite Reader, which operates out of a storefront in Linden Square and formerly was located in Bell Circle.
The city had filed a writ of certiorari earlier this year with the court to hear the case. The city wanted the court to rule on whether its restrictive adult entertainment ordinance was unconstitutional or not, and whether attorneys for Moon-Lite were entitled to any fees for the 15-year-old case.
The city’s case was the oldest of some 250 cases before the court. The highest court took only four of them from that batch.
“It’s a difficult proposition,” said Zaleznik. “The other side initially waived their right to respond and the court actually asked them to file a response. It wasn’t a perfunctory dismissal.”
While it was too early to tell, the ruling appears to have ended the fight to get the city’s adult entertainment ordinance to meet Constitutional muster. It is uncertain if the city will have to re-write their ordinance now to something less restrictive.
Had the court heard the case and had the city prevailed, it was the hope of local authorities that they could shut down Moon-Lite altogether, or make them relocate to a remote area of the city.
The case, however, is not over.
The city is still waiting for a hearing before the state Supreme Judicial Court on the attornies fees billed by Moon-Lite’s defense team. That hearing should take place in September or October.
