San Diego Judge Rules In Favor Of Strip Clubs Seeking To Remain Open

Speaker 1: 00:00 Right now San Diego County emergency departments are requiring complete ambulance diversion due to the pandemic. That means ambulances are being rerouted and in some cases turned away because emergency rooms are overwhelmed with patients. Recent shutdown orders across the state were put in place in hopes of easing the strain on medical systems, despite that San Diego superior court judge Joe Wolfville ruled yesterday that two strip clubs, Pacers and cheetahs could remain open, which could actually reopen the doors of local restaurants to hear to talk about that ruling is Dan Eaton. He's an attorney with the law firm seltzer Caplan McMahon Invitech. Dan. Welcome. Speaker 2: 00:40 Thank you. Good to be with you. Speaker 1: 00:42 So, Dan, what does judge Wolfelt's ruling say? And what exactly does it mean? Speaker 2: 00:48 What it specifically says with respect to the strip clubs that brought this lawsuit is that the state's orders are too restrictive because they have a first amendment, right. With respect to, uh, live entertainment and, uh, they have to be allowed to reopen and resumed both their live entertainment and restaurant operations. Speaker 1: 01:10 I mean, let's talk about that more. What justification did the judge cite for his ruling? Speaker 2: 01:15 Well, there were a few justifications. Uh, one was that the County had not shown any kind of, uh, connection between these operations, whether live entertainment or restaurant, given the restrictions that the strip clubs had agreed to adopt and the spread of COVID. Uh, the judge also relied on the constitutional interest in live entertainment. Interestingly, judge Wolfville cited the recent Supreme court ruling in the diocese of Brooklyn case, uh, which of course dealt with, uh, churches. And in that ruling, uh, the court said the constitution is not to be put away and forgotten even during a pandemic. Speaker 1: 02:00 Hmm. So does Wolfelt's ruling apply to all restaurants or just to the two strip clubs that were litigants before him? Speaker 2: 02:07 Now that's a fascinating question. And it's one that apparently the county's going to ask the judge to clarify on its face. The order appears to apply not only to the strip clubs who were the only parties to this action, but also to, uh, restaurants. Uh, generally the interesting issue there is when you read the opinion very, very closely as I have. That's the question is really whether the restaurant operations are those that are tied to strip clubs or whether it applies more broadly. And even if it applies more broadly, is it limited to other operations that are like of these strip clubs? Whether because the operations offer live entertainment or for other reasons. Speaker 1: 02:48 So the ruling seems to be a bit vague, is that problematic at all, Speaker 2: 02:52 It's potentially problematic, except that judges only decide cases based on the parties that are before them. And it's important to realize that the strip clubs did not bring this lawsuit on behalf of other kinds of business establishment, like restaurant in that way, it's distinguished from the cowboy star and other restaurants who are brought a lawsuit, seeking a temporary restraining order, which was hurt by a different, uh, superior court judge at which resulted in an November 23rd order by judge Ken Madell. Uh, that said, well, the state's interest is strong enough and I don't think you restaurants have a strong enough interest in the economic wellbeing of that is going to be suffered by these restrictions to overcome of the state's interest in addressing this awful pandemic through which we've all been living. Speaker 1: 03:42 What do you think this could mean for other businesses like salons who have also had to shut down during this pandemic? Speaker 2: 03:49 Well, it's not entirely clear. Even the broadest reading of the judge's ruling doesn't include other kinds of establishments like gym and salon, but you can't expect that a very least restaurants will go in, uh, to, uh, judge Wolfville potentially and say, well, me too, let me, uh, try to take advantage of this as well, but understand that general restaurants that don't have live entertainment, but don't have exactly the same bundle of interests that the strip clubs do. So there could very well be a different outcome and understand also that in the meantime, the County is not enforcing restrictions on restaurants until this is all clarified, that itself could have a dramatic impact. Speaker 1: 04:33 And so when does this go into effect and while the County can appeal, is there anything else the County could do at this point? Speaker 2: 04:39 Judge Wolfelt's order went into effect yesterday that day immediately. And that is why the County decided to suspend enforcement, uh, at least with respect to strip clubs. And then of course it also said more broadly with respect to restaurants. The order is in effect pending trial of this matter will trial. This matter is not going to occur for a number of months. And by then we will have emerged from this nightmare. And in that case, the case will be moved. But let me, Speaker 1: 05:08 I ask this question. So basically this, this, this ruling allows even restaurants to open, right? Speaker 2: 05:14 Arguably allows restaurants to open. Remember what I said before is that the ruling continually uses this phrase, uh, to San Diego County, uh, businesses with restaurant service, comma, such as plaintiff's establishment. That is the phrase that the judge uses repeatedly, uh, about 10 or 12 times. The question is whether that means that all restaurants or only those restaurants that come with it, the kinds of features that the plaintiff's strip clubs have. Right. Speaker 1: 05:47 And, and also I'm curious to know if the restaurants, if they were able to reopen which, I mean, it sounds like no, one's going to be enforcing them anything if they are, if they are reopened, do they have to abide by a social distancing mandates or, or would they have to have diners eat outside or, or is it just, are they back open as if there's no pandemic? Speaker 2: 06:08 That is incredibly important point because no one is claiming that our restaurants and even the strip clubs are not claiming that they are entitled to operate without restrictions. In fact, one of the most important parts of judge Wolf fields ruling was that after the earlier temporary restraining order he issued, which allowed the strip clubs to reopen the strip called, uh, agreed to a broad set of restrictions, 15 feet away, no touching, all kinds of restriction. Uh, even the restaurants have said that we're willing to abide by the purple tier restrictions. What we don't want is this flat out a shutdown Speaker 1: 06:46 In speaking with attorney Dan Eaton with the law firm, seltzer Caplan McMahon, and Vitech Dan, thank you so much. Good to be with you. And also this Justin San Diego County supervisor, Diane Jacob released a statement about this ruling moments ago. She is calling for an emergency closed session meeting of the board to quote, get clarity on the judge's order and the county's position on an appeal.