In , long before the raids, three dancers who lost their jobs because of the age ban sued the Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control ATC arguing that new age limits violated their labor rights. In March , a federal judge issued a temporary injunction, preventing the age ban from being enforced; the state is now appealing. Dancers in New Orleans reject the claim that their workplaces contribute to trafficking. But dancers also made clear in their suit against the ban and later, in their January protests, that the ban will harm them and their families.
As a dancer, she said, she could set her own schedule, and earned enough to meet her obligations and save for retirement. If the age ban survives the legal challenge, Jane Doe 1 said, she would be forced to move out of state. Jane Doe 2, age 18, from Baton Rouge, told the court that she has been on her own since both her parents died of cancer.
Benefits she received after their deaths, she explained, ended when she graduated high school. Dancing is what allowed her to pay her college tuition. Jane Doe 3, age 19, from New Orleans, has a 1-year-old daughter. Rather, they are women over the age of majority who have voluntarily engaged in the employment of erotic dancing in clubs, and who have voluntarily filed this lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of a law.
Yet the basis for the law is that adult women ages 18, 19, and 20 lack the maturity to make the decision to work as dancers. The state claimed, for instance, that the ban is clear about what conduct is prohibited. But Judge Edith Brown Clement pointed out that the ban was far from clear. Cover a little bit? A little pastie cover? Or a bikini top cover?
Bergthold, who represented the state in oral arguments on February 7, has deep roots in the Christian right, and has made a career of defending laws meant to shutter adult entertainment businesses. The task force was eventually disbanded in June Bergthold was also hired last October by Landrieu to advise the city on a study of Bourbon Street strip clubs. The Chattanooga-based lawyer represents city governments from California to South Dakota to Florida, seeking to eliminate strip clubs and other adult businesses.
