TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—A federal district judge dismissed a case Wednesday that involved two Florida strip clubs, an adult retailer and a 19-year-old performer challenging the state government’s ban on working in an adult entertainment venue for adults under the age of 21.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs filed a notice on May 7 with the court dismissing the lawsuit, which challenged the age-restriction law on First Amendment grounds. Considering this, U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor for the Northern District of Florida issued an order closing the case.
The attorneys for the plaintiffs cited a similar ruling by the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, stating that a similar city ordinance ratified by the City of Jacksonville to restrict the age of professionals in adult entertainment venues as a means to fight human trafficking was constitutional and would not infringe on free speech.
The Eleventh Circuit found that the “ordinance’s age limitation must be treated as a content-neutral restriction on speech of would-be erotic dancers younger than 21.”
The May 7 filing by the plaintiffs notes that the age ban in Jacksonville “was very similar to the (state) statute challenged in this proceeding.”
“In particular both laws prohibit the employment of persons under the age of 21 in exotic dance establishments,” notes the filing. Counsel in the dismissed case noted that the plaintiffs in the case dealing with Jacksonville did not plan to seek rehearing or to appeal the case for a final ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
They added in the filing, “Accordingly, the decision issued by the Eleventh Circuit on April 23, 2025, is likely to be a final decision and precedential within this circuit.”
AVN reported on this litigation when it was filed last July. First Amendment litigator Gary Edinger represented the plaintiffs: Café Risque, Sinsations, Exotic Fantasies, and the dancer Serenity Bushey, who was aged 19 at the time.
