HH-Indianapolis, LLC v. Consolidated City of Indianapolis

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
First Amendment
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 17-3023
Decision Date: 
May 7, 2018
Federal District: 
S.D. Ind., Indianapolis Div.
Holding: 
Affirmed

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying plaintiff’s motion for issuance of preliminary injunction in action alleging that defendant’s zoning ordinance, which precluded plaintiff from operating “adult entertainment business” within zone, violated its 1st and 14th Amendment rights as applied to it, where plaintiff had previously signed 10-year lease on building within said zone. Record showed that: (1) plaintiff proposed to sell variety of merchandise, including, among other things, instructional DVDs containing sexual material, marital aids and sexual devices such as dildos and vibrators; and (2) plaintiff’s projected sales of said merchandise exceeded 25 percent threshold necessary to qualify plaintiff’s business as either adult bookstore or adult service establishment for purposes of imposing instant ban under said ordinance. Moreover, plaintiff was unlikely to prevail on its 1st Amendment claim, where: (1) instant ordinance constituted content neutral time, place and manner regulation of adult entertainment businesses that was subject to intermediate scrutiny; (2) defendant provided plaintiff with reasonable alternatives in terms of number of other commercial zones that would allow plaintiff to operate adult entertainment business as matter of right; (3) defendant had legitimate interest in reducing secondary effects of adult entertainment businesses; and (4) instant ordinance resulted in only incidental restriction of plaintiff’s speech.