City of Chicago v. Pooh Bah Enterprises, Inc. (224 Ill. 2d 390, 2006)

JUSTICE KARMEIER

delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

Chief Justice Thomas and Justices Fitzgerald, Kilbride, and Garman concurred in the judgment and opinion.

Justice Freeman dissented upon denial of rehearing, with opinion.

Justice Burke took no part in the decision.

OPINION

Section 4 — 60—140(d) of the Municipal Code of Chicago prohibits establishments licensed to serve alcoholic beverages from permitting any employee, entertainer or patron to engage in “any live act, demonstration, dance or exhibition *** which exposes to public view *** [h]is or her genitals, pubic hair, buttocks *** or [a]ny portion of the female breast at or below the areola thereof.” The issue we are asked to resolve today is whether this ordinance violates the first and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution (U.S. Const., amends. I, XIV) and article I, section 4, of the Illinois Constitution of 1970 (Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, §4). The circuit court of Cook County found that it does. The appellate court concluded that it does not. Nos. 1 — 01— 0592, 1 — 01—1932 cons, (unpublished order under Supreme Court Rule 23). For the reasons that follow, we affirm the judgment of the appellate court.

The events which gave rise to this appeal began in 1993, when the Liquor Control Commission of the City of Chicago initiated administrative proceedings against Pooh Bah Enterprises, Inc. (Pooh Bah), to revoke various municipal licenses which had been issued to the company, including its municipal retail liquor license. The challenged licenses had been issued to the company in connection with its operation of a so-called “gentlemen’s club” located at 1531 North Kingsbury Street in the City of Chicago. The basis for the revocation was that the company, by and through its agents, had permitted various female dancers at the club to expose their buttocks or portions of their breasts at or below the areola to public view in violation of section 4 — 60—140(d) of the Chicago Municipal Code.

The record shows that Pooh Bah was originally owned by an individual named Jim Levin. Under Levin’s ownership, Pooh Bah operated the club as the “1531 Club.” When Levin began experiencing financial problems, Perry Mandera, owner and president of a Chicago-area-based shipping company known as The Custom Companies, lent him $300,000 in exchange for a security interest in 50% of Pooh Bah’s stock. Mandera subsequently lent Levin an additional $500,000 to finance improvements to the club undertaken in connection with its becoming a franchisee of a chain of “strip” clubs operated by Michael J. Peter Club Management, Inc., under the name “Thee Dollhouse.”

Prior to the switch to the Thee Dollhouse format, no nude or seminude dancing was performed at the club. Strippers did not appear until the club became affiliated with the Michael J. Peter organization. Unfortunately for Levin, the introduction of strippers did not bring financial solvency, and he was unable to repay Mandera the money he owed. Mandera ultimately took over full ownership of Pooh Bah through an entity he owned called Ace Entertainment.

According to his testimony, Mandera, through Ace Entertainment, became the sole owner of Pooh Bah and thus the strip club in the summer of 1993. After taking over, Mandera terminated the club’s connection with the Michael J. Peter organization. In place of that company, Mandera, through Pooh Bah, entered into management and licensing agreements with Frederick John “Rick” Rizzolo, owner of a Las Vegas strip club known as “The Crazy Horse Too.” Rizzolo became active in the management of Pooh Bah’s club in 1995, while the license revocation proceedings were still pending. For his services, Rizzolo was paid $20,000 per month, plus travel expenses.

Under Rizzolo’s regime, the club dropped the name “Thee Dollhouse” and began operating under the same name as Rizzolo’s club in Las Vegas, “The Crazy Horse Too.” Mandera explained that he affiliated his club with Rizzolo because, when he came across The Crazy Horse Too in Las Vegas, “[he] liked what they did.” He was impressed by the club’s success and its desire to expand into other cities. According to Mandera, Rizzolo was willing to give him a far better financial arrangement than the one Pooh Bah had with the Michael J. Peter organization. Being affiliated with Rizzolo also provided Pooh Bah with access to the same pool of dancers Rizzolo used. In addition, Mandera testified that Rizzolo “seemed like a very nice person and operated a nice, up-scale operation ***.”

The club operated under the name The Crazy Horse Too until 2003. According to the briefs and records of the Illinois Secretary of State, the establishment now does business under the name “VIP’s” or “VIP’s, A Gentlemen’s Club.” Absent any indication from the parties to the contrary, we assume that its ownership and operations remain unchanged.

At the time the license revocation proceedings against Pooh Bah commenced and throughout the period relevant to this litigation, its club at 1531 North Kingsbury Street has provided something that other licensed establishments selling liquor by the drink in Chicago do not: seminude dancers. Entertainment venues featuring nude and seminude female dancers operate within the City’s limits in compliance with municipal ordinances. None of them, however, has a liquor license. Throughout all of Chicago, Pooh Bah’s club is the only commercial establishment where the sale of liquor by the drink and dancing by seminude women are combined.

The mix of alcohol sales and nude or seminude dancing was not always so rare. Roger G. O’Brien, a veteran Chicago police officer who has worked in the Department’s 18th District vice unit since 1979, testified that the City’s Rush Street entertainment district was once home to 12 or 13 strip clubs, all of which served alcohol. During that time, prostitution in and around the clubs was pervasive. According to O’Brien, in the late 1970s and mid-1980s, there were prostitutes on every corner in the Rush Street area, and inside the clubs, waitresses and dancers frequently solicited customers for sex. Antiprostitution campaigns waged by the City during the 1980s ultimately resulted in the closure of all these establishments. O’Brien estimated that when the strip clubs serving alcohol were shut down, the number of prostitution arrests in the area declined by 80%.

Pooh Bah’s club is not located in Chicago’s Rush Street entertainment area and is not related to any of the City’s 1970- and 1980-era strip clubs. The type of entertainment presented at Pooh Bah’s club would, however, probably be familiar to patrons of those now-defunct establishments. After paying an admission charge, $15 in the year 2000, customers of the club enter a room containing a bar, an elevated stage area, and tables and chairs. Female performers take turns going on stage, where they remove their clothing while dancing to prerecorded background music. For the most part, the performers called to testify in this case had not received any formal dance training. One described taking dance lessons when she was a child. Another indicated that while she had never been taught dance steps, she had “either choreographed or hired choreographers” to assist her in her performance.

Over the course of an evening, more than 20 women may perform on stage. During those performances, waitresses take drink orders from patrons and serve them at their tables. When an entertainer has finished on stage, she will circulate through the club and mingle with the customers. Her objective in doing this is twofold. First, she is expected to earn money for the club by encouraging patrons to buy premium-priced drinks for themselves and for her. Alcohol sales are a major source of the club’s income, which is substantial. According to testimony given by Handera in 2000, the club’s gross annual revenue was $7 million. By comparison, strip clubs in Chicago that did not serve alcohol had annual revenues of only one or two million dollars.

A performer’s second objective when circulating through the club is to earn money for herself through tips. Dancers receive tips for providing two basic services: (1) sitting and talking with customers and (2) doing table dances. A table dance is simply a brief striptease which a dancer performs for a customer at the customer’s table. An additional fee is charged for this service. At Pooh Bah’s club, the basic charge for a table dance is $20, but dancers reported receiving as much as $100.

The dances performed on stage and at customers’ tables are intended to be erotic. Performers typically move in a sexually suggestive fashion, often enhancing the effect by rubbing their breasts and pubic areas. Club policy specifies that dancers are to stay at least one foot away from customers during table dances, but evidence in the record suggests that this restriction is routinely ignored. The same is true of a club policy forbidding dancers to have physical contact with customers. The record shows that performers sometimes do deliberately touch customers during table dances. One report included earlobe nibbling. Dancer Tracey Lynn Sula admitted kissing customers on the cheek.

During both the onstage performances and the table dances, performers become largely, although not totally, nude. By the conclusion of a striptease, whether on stage or at a customer’s table, the only item of clothing a dancer will still have on is a thong, sometimes referred to as a “T-bar.” That garment consists of a narrow waistband to which is attached a panel of cloth intended to cover the woman’s pubic area. A strip of material runs from the front panel, between the woman’s legs, up through the cleft of her buttocks, then attaches to the waistband at the back. It is similar to a traditional G-string except that the cloth strip running between the woman’s buttocks is wider. When a performer wears a thong, her anus is concealed. As with a G-string, however, her buttocks are left completely exposed.

Although performers at Pooh Bah’s club remove all of their clothing but their thongs when they dance, they also apply flesh-toned makeup and latex to their nipples and areolas. The makeup and latex do not conceal the contours of the nipple area. They merely obscure the naturally darker color of that portion of the women’s breasts. Evidence was presented that the dancers are also required by club policy and practice to extend the makeup and latex covering to a triangular area extending below the areola in the area in the frontal portion of the breast. Whether any female performers at Pooh Bah’s club ever actually did that is open to question. It is clear, however, that the entire sides of the dancers’ breasts remained fully exposed with no latex or makeup coating. From photographs and video exhibits contained in the record, the dancers’ breasts appear nude. But for the change in color of the nipples and areolas, one could not tell that the dancers’ breasts had been covered in any way. Testimony from investigating police officers indicated that, in person, one could sometimes see through the makeup and latex and discern the difference in coloration between a dancer’s areolas and the fleshy portion of her breasts.

While the name of Pooh Bah’s club has changed over the years, the way dancers have appeared when interacting with customers has remained constant. The combination of “T-bars” and latex-covered nipples and areolas has been a hallmark of the club since it first adopted the “gentlemen’s club” format in 1993. As we have previously indicated, and as we shall discuss again later, Chicago municipal ordinances do not prohibit women from dancing for customers in that state of undress. Throughout the period at issue here, clubs have been permitted to operate in the City featuring dancers who wear even less. Indeed, there are establishments where dancers perform in a state of complete nudity. What triggered this litigation is Pooh Bah’s decision to present dancers in “T-bars” and latex makeup while continuing to serve alcoholic beverages to its patrons.

Pooh Bah’s combination of nude or seminude dancing and liquor sales was opposed by municipal authorities as soon as the club attempted it. Pooh Bah introduced seminude dancing in February of 1993. City police were on the premises conducting investigations within two weeks. By the following month, the Liquor Control Commission of the City of Chicago had initiated administrative proceedings against Pooh Bah to revoke various municipal licenses which had been issued to the company, including its municipal retail liquor license. The basis for the revocation, as indicated at the outset of this opinion, was that the company, by and through its agents, had violated section 4 — 60—140(d) of the Chicago Municipal Code, which prohibits establishments licensed to serve alcoholic beverages from permitting any employee, entertainer or patron to engage in “any live act, demonstration, dance or exhibition *** which exposes to public view *** [h]is or her genitals, pubic hair, buttocks *** or [a]ny portion of the female breast at or below the areola thereof.” For purposes of the ordinance, the foregoing body parts are considered to be exposed to public view if they are “uncovered or [are] less than completely and opaquely covered.” Chicago Municipal Code §4 — 60— 140(d) (2006).

Pooh Bah attempted to block the license revocation by filing a suit for declaratory and injunctive relief in the circuit court of Cook County. The circuit court denied Pooh Bah’s request for a temporary restraining order. The Local Liquor Commissioner of the City of Chicago subsequently entered an order, following the requisite notice and a hearing, which revoked the City of Chicago retail liquor license and all other city licenses issued to Pooh Bah for its strip club at 1531 North Kingsbury Street based on its determination that the company had, in fact, violated section 4 — 60—140(d) of the Municipal Code.

Pooh Bah appealed the revocation of its liquor licence to the City of Chicago’s liquor appeal commission pursuant to sections 7 — 5 and 7 — 9 of the Liquor Control Act of 1934 (235 ILCS 5/7 — 5, 7 — 9 (West 1996)). The Commission affirmed. Pooh Bah petitioned for rehearing. 235 ILCS 5/7 — 10 (West 1996). When that petition was denied, Pooh Bah sought judicial review in the circuit court of Cook County pursuant to this state’s Administrative Review Law (735 ILCS 5/3 — 101 et seq. (West 1996)). See 235 ILCS 5/7 — 9, 7 — 11 (West 1996). The request for judicial review was asserted by Pooh Bah by means of a new count added to an amended complaint it filed in connection with its civil action for declaratory and injunctive relief, which remained pending.

Revocation of Pooh Bah’s municipal licenses was stayed while judicial review of the revocation decision was underway and Pooh Bah’s civil action continued. The City, however, did not wait for those matters to be resolved before taking further action. It filed a counterclaim against Pooh Bah for equitable and other relief. The basis for its counterclaim was that the strip club operated by the company at 1531 North Kingsbury Street violated section 8 — 4—090(a) of the Chicago Municipal Code. Under that statute,

“[a]ny premises used for prostitution, illegal gambling, illegal [drug] trafficking *** or any other activity that constitutes a felony, misdemeanor, business offense or petty offense under federal, state or municipal law is hereby declared to be a public nuisance ***.” Chicago Municipal Code §8 — 4—090(a) (2005).

In the City’s view, Pooh Bah was committing a business or petty offense within the meaning of this statute by allowing its entertainers to engage in live acts, demonstrations, dances or exhibitions which expose to public view portions of the buttocks and female breasts at or below the areolae in violation of section 4 — 60—140(d) of the Municipal Code.

The foregoing proceedings, which we shall designate as the license revocation case, were protracted. Because the license revocations had been stayed pending review, however, Pooh Bah’s municipal licenses remained in effect and the company was able to continue operating its strip club at 1531 North Kingsbury Street throughout the remainder of the 1990s. In 1999, further investigation by undercover police officers revealed that dancers at the club continued to engage in the type of conduct which had triggered the initial license revocation proceedings six years earlier. The City therefore filed a new action in the circuit court of Cook County to obtain injunctive relief to shut down the club.

The basis for the City’s new claim was essentially the same as that asserted in connection with the original license revocation case. According to the City, Pooh Bah had violated and continues to violate section 4 — 60— 140(d) of the Municipal Code of Chicago by “causing, encouraging or permitting” female performers at the club to engage in dances or exhibitions “which expose to public view portions of the female breast at or below the areola, the buttocks, the pubic hair regions and portions of the genitalia.” The City further alleged that Pooh Bah was in violation of section 8 — 4—090(a) of the Chicago Municipal Code, the city’s public nuisance ordinance. Unlike the City’s counterclaim in Pooh Bah’s civil action challenging the license revocation, the City’s public nuisance claim in this case not only charged violation of the liquor ordinance, it asserted that Pooh Bah had caused, encouraged and permitted female performers to engage in prostitution and to solicit for prostitution.

After filing its new complaint for injunctive relief, the City moved for issuance of a preliminary injunction. Following discovery and a series of hearings extending over several months, the circuit court ruled in January of 2001 that section 4 — 60—140(d) of the Municipal Code of Chicago contravened the first and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution (U.S. Const., amends. I, XIV) and article I, section 4, of the Illinois Constitution of 1970 (Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, §4) and therefore could not serve as the predicate for the City’s claim that Pooh Bah’s strip club was being operated in a manner that constitutes a public nuisance. Concluding that the City had failed to establish that operation of the strip club created a public nuisance in any other way, the circuit court denied the City’s motion for a preliminary injunction.

By agreement of the parties, the circuit court amended its ruling, nunc pro tunc, on May 3, 2001, to clarify certain of its provisions. In a separate order entered the same day, the circuit court also granted a joint motion by the parties to consolidate the license revocation case with the public nuisance case and to adopt the evidentiary record developed in connection with the motion for a preliminary injunction as the basis for resolution of the license revocation and public nuisance cases on the merits. In yet a third order dated May 3, 2001, the court entered judgment in favor of Pooh Bah and against the City on the City’s public nuisance claims; reversed the decision of the liquor appeal commission upholding revocation of Pooh Bah’s municipal licenses; vacated the revocation of those licenses; reserved for future consideration various related and subsidiary issues; and made an express written finding that there was no just reason for delaying enforcement or appeal.

The City took an interlocutory appeal from the circuit court’s judgement. Rejecting the circuit court’s position, the appellate court held that section 4 — 60—140(d) of the Municipal Code of Chicago does not violate either the federal or the Illinois Constitution. Because the ordinance is not unconstitutional, the appellate court further held that violation of the ordinance could serve as the basis for (1) revoking Pooh Bah’s municipal licenses and (2) finding that Pooh Bah’s operation of the strip club constituted a public nuisance. The appellate court therefore reversed the circuit court’s judgment and remanded for further proceedings with respect to both the license revocation case and the City’s public nuisance claim. Nos. 1 — 01—0592,1—01—1932 cons, (unpublished order under Supreme Court Rule 23). After failing to persuade the appellate court to grant rehearing, Pooh Bah petitioned our court for leave to appeal. 177 Ill. 2d R. 315. We granted that petition, and the cause is now before us for review.

In resolving this appeal, the pivotal inquiry is whether section 4 — 60—140(d) of the Municipal Code of Chicago violates either the United States or the Illinois Constitution. When assessing the validity of municipal ordinances, our analysis is guided by the same standards applicable to statutes. City of Chicago v. Morales, 177 Ill. 2d 440, 447 (1997). As with statutes, municipal ordinances are presumed to be valid. Chavda v. Wolak, 188 Ill. 2d 394, 398 (1999). The burden of rebutting that presumption is on the party challenging the law’s validity. La Salle National Bank v. Evanston, 57 Ill. 2d 415, 428 (1974). Courts are obligated to uphold the constitutionality of ordinances whenever it is reasonably possible to do so. City of Chicago v. Alton R.R. Co., 355 Ill. 65, 75 (1933). Whether a legislative enactment is constitutional presents a question of law which we review de novo. See O’Brien v. White, 219 Ill. 2d 86, 98 (2006).

We consider first Pooh Bah’s contention that section 4 — 60—140(d) of the Municipal Code of Chicago violates the first amendment to the United States Constitution. The first amendment is binding on the states through the fourteenth amendment’s due process clause. People v. Alexander, 204 Ill. 2d 472, 476 (2003). It provides, in part, that “Congress shall make no law *** abridging the freedom of speech.” U.S. Const., amend. I.

Although the first amendment literally forbids only the abridgement of freedom of speech, the United States Supreme Court has long recognized that its protections are not limited to the written or spoken word. They may also extend to expressive conduct. Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397, 404, 105 L. Ed. 2d 342, 353, 109 S. Ct. 2533, 2539 (1989). Generally speaking, the first amendment prevents the government from proscribing speech or expressive conduct because of disapproval of the ideas expressed. Content-based regulations are presumptively invalid. Nevertheless, restrictions upon the content of speech have traditionally been permitted in a few limited areas which are “ ‘of such slight social value as a step to truth that any benefit that may be derived from them is clearly outweighed by the social interest in order and morality.’ ” R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, 505 U.S. 377, 383, 120 L. Ed. 2d 305, 317, 112 S. Ct. 2538, 2543 (1992), quoting Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568, 572, 86 L. Ed. 1031, 1035, 62 S. Ct. 766, 769 (1942). Under the first amendment jurisprudence developed by the United States Supreme Court, freedom of speech does not include freedom to ignore these traditional limitations. R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, 505 U.S. at 383, 120 L. Ed. 2d at 317, 112 S. Ct. at 2543.

The municipal ordinance challenged in this case pertains to live acts, demonstrations, dances or exhibitions which expose to public view the performer’s genitals, pubic hair, buttocks or, in the case of female performers, any portion of the breast at or below the areola. The ordinance does not bar all such performances, only those that take place at establishments licensed to serve alcohol. At the time the license revocations were initiated in this case, the United States Supreme Court adhered to the view that where, as here, the sale of alcohol is involved, the regulatory authority conferred on states by the twenty-first amendment to the United States Constitution (U.S. Const., amend. XXI) gave states and their political subdivisions the power to ban nude dancing. Under the Court’s analysis, the broad powers of the states to regulate the sale of liquor pursuant to the twenty-first amendment outweighed any first amendment interest in nude dancing. The state therefore had the authority to ban nude dancing as a part of its liquor licensing program. City of Newport v. Iacobucci, 479 U.S. 92, 95, 93 L. Ed. 2d 334, 339, 107 S. Ct. 383, 385 (1986), quoting California v. LaRue, 409 U.S. 109, 114, 34 L. Ed. 2d 342, 349-50, 93 S. Ct. 390, 395 (1972). As the Court noted in New York State Liquor Authority v. Bellanca, 452 U.S. 714, 718, 69 L. Ed. 2d 357, 361, 101 S. Ct. 2599, 2602 (1981):

“Whatever artistic or communicative value may attach to topless dancing is overcome by the State’s exercise of its broad powers arising under the Twenty-first Amendment. Although some may quarrel with the wisdom of such legislation and may consider topless dancing a harmless diversion, the Twenty-first Amendment makes that a policy judgment for the state legislature, not the courts.”

See also California v. LaRue, 409 U.S. 109, 34 L. Ed. 2d 342, 93 S. Ct. 390 (1972) (given broad sweep of twenty-first amendment, regulations prohibiting explicitly sexual live entertainment and films in bars and other establishments licensed to dispense liquor by the drink not facially invalid).

Under the foregoing authority, section 4 — 60—140(d) of the Municipal Code of Chicago, which prohibits nude entertainment in establishments licensed to sell alcohol by the drink, would clearly not be subject to challenge on first amendment grounds. During the pendency of this litigation, however, the United States Supreme Court altered its view of the interplay between the first and twenty-first amendments. In 44 Liquormart, Inc. v. Rhode Island, 517 U.S. 484, 516, 134 L. Ed. 2d 711, 736, 116 S. Ct. 1495, 1514 (1996), the Court held that while the twenty-first amendment

“limits the effect of the dormant Commerce Clause on a State’s regulatory power over the delivery or use of intoxicating beverages within its borders, ‘the Amendment does not license the States to ignore their obligations under other provisions of the Constitution.’ [Citation.]”

Noting its specific holdings in prior cases that “the Twenty-first Amendment does not in any way diminish the force of the Supremacy Clause [citations]; the Establishment Clause [citation] or the Equal Protection Clause [citation],” the Court concluded that the same should also be true with respect to the free speech clause. 44 Liquormart, 517 U.S. at 516, 134 L. Ed. 2d at 736, 116 S. Ct. at 1514-15. It therefore held “the Twenty-first Amendment does not qualify the constitutional prohibition against laws abridging the freedom of speech embodied in the First Amendment.” 44 Liquormart, 517 U.S. at 516, 134 L. Ed. 2d at 736, 116 S. Ct. at 1515.

Although the Court thus disavowed the reasoning employed in City of Newport v. Iacobucci, New York State Liquor Authority v. Bellanca, and California v. LaRue, insofar as it relied on the twenty-first amendment, it distinguished cases such as LaRue, which involved the regulation of nude dancing in places where alcohol was served. The Court held that “[e]ntirely apart from the Twenty-first Amendment, the State has ample power to prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages in inappropriate locations.” 44 Liquormart, 517 U.S. at 515, 134 L. Ed. 2d at 735, 116 S. Ct. at 1514. One of those locations is an establishment where nude dancing is allowed. Accordingly, the Court held that its “analysis in LaRue would have led to precisely the same result if it had placed no reliance on the Twenty-first Amendment.” 44 Liquormart, 517 U.S. at 515, 134 L. Ed. 2d at 735, 116 S. Ct. at 1514.

Four years after 44 Liquormart was decided, the United States Supreme Court examined the validity of a municipal public indecency ordinance which made it an offense to intentionally appear in public in a “state of nudity.” Under that ordinance, whose provisions were similar to those at issue in this case, “nudity” was defined to include the “showing of the *** buttocks with less than a fully opaque covering; the showing of the female breast with less than a fully opaque covering of any part of the nipple; *** or the exposure of any device worn as a cover over the nipples and/or areola of the female breast, which device simulates and gives the realistic appearance of nipples and/or areola.” City of Erie v. Pap’s A.M., 529 U.S. 277, 283 n.*, 146 L. Ed. 2d 265, 274 n.*, 120 S. Ct. 1382, 1388 n * (2000) (plurality op.). Unlike the matter before us today, these prohibitions were not limited to establishments licensed to serve alcohol.

Pap’s, a Pennsylvania corporation which operated Kandyland, an establishment featuring totally nude erotic dancing by women, challenged the ordinance on the grounds that its public nudity provisions violated the first and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution. Although the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the corporation’s challenge (Pap’s AM. v. City of Erie, 553 Pa. 348, 719 A.2d 273 (1998)), the United States Supreme Court reversed and remanded. In a plurality opinion authored by Justice O’Connor, the Court held that while erotic nude dancing is expressive conduct, it falls “only within the outer ambit of the First Amendment’s protection.” Pap’s A.M., 529 U.S. at 289, 146 L. Ed. 2d at 278, 120 S. Ct. at 1391 (plurality op.). Concluding that the ordinance was directed at combating negative secondary effects associated with adult establishments and was unrelated to the suppression of the erotic message conveyed by nude dancing, the Court held that it was not subject to strict scrutiny. Rather, its validity turned on whether it passed the less stringent intermediate standard set forth in United States v. O’Brien, 391 U.S. 367, 20 L. Ed. 2d 672, 88 S. Ct. 1673 (1968). Pap’s A.M., 529 U.S. at 296, 146 L. Ed. 2d at 282, 120 S. Ct. at 1394-95 (plurality op.).

Under O’Brien, a content-neutral regulation will be upheld if it (1) is within the constitutional power of the government, (2) furthers an important or substantial governmental interest, (3) is unrelated to the suppression of free expression, and (4) restricts first amendment freedoms no further than is essential to further the government’s interest. O’Brien, 391 U.S. at 377, 20 L. Ed. 2d at 680, 88 S. Ct. at 1679 (1968). The Court in Pap’s AM. held that the nude-dancing ordinance at issue in that case was justified under these standards. According to the Court, the municipality’s efforts to protect public health and safety were clearly within its police powers. The ordinance furthered the city’s undeniably important interest in combating the harmful secondary effects associated with nude dancing. Pap’s AM., 529 U.S. at 296-97, 146 L. Ed. 2d at 282-83, 120 S. Ct. at 1395 (plurality op.). It was unrelated to the suppression of free expression, and “any incidental impact on the expressive element of nude dancing [was] de minimus,” leaving “ample capacity to convey the dancer’s erotic message.” Pap’s AM., 529 U.S. at 301, 146 L. Ed. 2d at 286, 120 S. Ct. at 1397 (plurality op.).

As we have indicated, the public indecency ordinance at issue in Pap’s AM. was general in nature. Unlike section 4 — 60—140(d) of the Municipal Code of Chicago, its restrictions were not limited to establishments licensed to sell alcoholic beverages. In the years following 44 Liquor mart and Pap’s A.M., the United States Supreme Court itself has not specifically addressed the framework which should be followed in analyzing first amendment challenges to adult entertainment restrictions contained in municipal liquor regulations. The issue was, however, recently addressed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Ben’s Bar, Inc. v. Village of Somerset, 316 E3d 702 (7th Cir. 2003).

Ben’s Bar concerned an ordinance enacted by the Village of Somerset, Wisconsin that, in part, prohibited the sale, use or consumption of alcohol on the premises of “sexually oriented businesses.” Under the village’s regulatory scheme, an establishment fell within the definition of “sexually oriented business,” and therefore could not serve alcohol, if it featured nude or seminude dancers. For purposes of the ordinance, nudity was defined as “the appearance of the human bare anus, anal cleft or cleavage, pubic area, male genitals, female genitals, or the nipple or areola of the female breast, with less than a fully opaque covering; or showing of the covered male genitals in a discernibly turgid state.” Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 706 n.5. Seminudity was “the exposure of a bare male or female buttocks or the female breast below a horizontal line across the top of the areola at its highest point with less than a complete and opaque covering.” Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 708.

The village’s reasons for enacting this ordinance were expressly noted in the “legislative findings” section of the ordinance itself. That section stated:

“Based on evidence concerning the adverse secondary effects of Sexually Oriented Businesses on the community in reports made available to the Village Board, and on the holdings and findings in [numerous Supreme Court, federal appellate, and state appellate judicial decisions], as well as studies and summaries of studies conducted in other cities ... and findings reported in the Regulation of Adult Entertainment Establishments in St. Croix County, Wisconsin; and the Report of the Attorney General’s Working Group of Sexually Oriented Businesses ... the Village Board finds that:

(a) Crime statistics show that all types of crimes, especially sex-related crimes, occur with more frequency in neighborhoods where sexually oriented businesses are located.

(b) Studies of the relationship between sexually oriented businesses and neighborhood property values have found a negative impact on both residential and commercial property values.

(c) Sexually oriented businesses may contribute to an increased public health risk through the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

(d) There is an increase in the potential for infiltration by organized crime for the purpose of unlawful conduct.

(e) The consumption of alcoholic beverages on the premises of a Sexually Oriented Business exacerbates the deleterious secondary effects of such businesses on the community.” (Emphasis omitted.) Ben’s Bar, 316 E3d at 705.

Following enactment of this ordinance, but two months before it was to take effect, a bar that provided nude and seminude dancing and that held a liquor license issued by the village, along with two of the bar’s dancers, filed an action against the village asserting, inter alia, that the ordinance violated their rights to free expression under the first amendment. Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 705. The trial court rejected that claim and granted summary judgment in favor of the village. The bar appealed, arguing that the trial court erred in concluding that the ordinance did not constitute an unconstitutional restriction on nude dancing. Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 707.

In undertaking its review of the trial court’s judgment, the court of appeals began by dismissing as fallacious the bar’s contention that the ordinance was directed at the dancer’s attire, or lack thereof. The ordinance, the court held, “restricts the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages in establishments that serve as venues for adult entertainment, not the attire of nude dancers.” Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 708. The court then proceeded to review recent United States Supreme Court authority governing adult entertainment regulations, including 44 Liquormart and Pap’s A.M. and its adoption of O’Brien’s four-part test. The court also discussed City of Los Angeles v. Alameda Books, Inc., 535 U.S. 425, 152 L. Ed. 2d 670, 122 S. Ct. 1728 (2002). That decision, which followed Pap’s A.M., upheld, at the summary judgment stage, an ordinance prohibiting multiple adult entertainment businesses from operating in the same building. The primary issue in the case was the appropriate standard for determining whether the ordinance served a substantial governmental interest. No majority could be reached on that question, but Justice Kennedy concurred in the plurality’s overall conclusion that a municipality’s initial burden of demonstrating a substantial government interest in regulating the adverse secondary effects associated with adult entertainment is slight. Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 722. “As to this,” he observed,

“we have consistently held that a city must have latitude to experiment, at least at the outset, and that very little evidence is required. [Citations.] As a general matter, courts should not be in the business of second-guessing fact-bound empirical assessments of city planners. [Citation.] The Los Angeles City Council knows the streets of Los Angeles better than we do. [Citations.] It is entitled to rely on that knowledge; and if its inferences appear reasonable, we should not say there is no basis for its conclusion.” Alameda Books, 535 U.S. at 451-52, 152 L. Ed. 2d at 691, 122 S. Ct. at 1742-43.

Based on its review of the authorities set forth above and others, the Seventh Circuit concluded that under controlling United States Supreme Court precedent, a liquor regulation prohibiting the sale or consumption of alcohol on the premises of adult entertainment establishments is constitutional if: Step four of this test encapsulates the so-called intermediate standard of scrutiny. Joelner v. Village of Washington Park, 378 F.3d 613, 622 (7th Cir. 2004).

“(1) the State is regulating pursuant to a legitimate governmental power [citation]; (2) the regulation does not completely prohibit adult entertainment [citation]; (3) the regulation is aimed not at the suppression of expression, but rather at combating the negative secondary effects caused by adult entertainment establishments [citation]; and (4) the regulation is designed to serve a substantial government interest, narrowly tailored, and reasonable alternative avenues of communication remain available [citation]; or, alternatively, the regulation furthers an important or substantial government interest and the restriction on expressive conduct is no greater than is essential in furtherance of that interest. [Citation.]” (Emphasis in original.) Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 722.

Applying the foregoing analytical framework to the Somerset village ordinance, the Seventh Circuit held that the village’s regulation of alcohol sales and consumption in inappropriate locations was clearly within its general police powers. The ordinance was therefore of the type which the government has the constitutional authority to enact. Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 722, citing Pap’s A.M., 529 U.S. at 296, 146 L. Ed. 2d at 282-83, 120 S. Ct. at 1395. Next, the court concluded that the ordinance did not completely bar Ben’s Bar employees from conveying an erotic message. In the court’s view, it merely prohibited alcohol from being sold or consumed on the premises of adult entertainment establishments. Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 723. With respect to step three, the court determined, after reviewing the record, that the predominant concern of the village in adopting the ordinance was the negative secondary effects attendant to sexually oriented businesses, such as increased crime and reduced property values in neighboring business and residential areas. The village was not attempting to suppress any speech or conduct protected by the first amendment. Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 723-24.

Because the Village’s ordinance thus satisfied these preliminary standards, the court proceeded to the fourth and final step. In applying that step, the court explained that it was required to determine whether the village had adequately demonstrated that there was a connection between the speech regulated by the ordinance and the secondary effects that motivated the ordinance’s adoption. As we have previously detailed, the record showed that the village relied on numerous judicial decisions, studies from 11 different cities, “findings reported in the Regulation of Adult Entertainment Establishments of St. Croix, Wisconsin,” and the Report of the Attorney General’s Working Group of Sexually Oriented Businesses (State of Minnesota, June 6, 1989) to support its conclusion that adult entertainment produces adverse secondary effects. Ben’s Bar, 316 E3d at 725. The court opined that this evidentiary record “fairly support[ed] the Village’s proffered rationale for [the ordinance], and that [the bar had] failed ‘to cast direct doubt on this rationale.’ ” Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 726, quoting Alameda Books, 535 U.S. at 438, 152 L. Ed. 2d at 683, 122 S. Ct. at 1736.

In finding the village’s evidentiary showing to be sufficient, the Seventh Circuit rejected a claim by the bar that the village should have been required to conduct its own studies, at the local level, to determine whether adverse secondary effects result when liquor is served on the premises of adult entertainment establishments. Citing various decisions by the United States Supreme Court, the court held that a municipality is not required to conduct new studies or produce evidence independent of that already generated by other cities “ ‘so long as whatever evidence the city relies upon is reasonably believed to be relevant to the problem that the city addresses.’ [Citation.]” Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 725. The Seventh Circuit also rejected the bar’s argument that the village’s case was fatally deficient because it had not adduced any written reports relating specifically to the effects of serving alcohol in establishments offering nude and seminude dancing. Again citing precedent from the United States Supreme Court, it held that it was entirely reasonable for the village to conclude that barroom nude dancing was likely to produce adverse secondary effects at the local level even in the absence of specific studies on the matter. As the New York state legislature noted in connection with the legislation challenged in Bellanca, “[c]ommon sense indicates that any form of nudity coupled with alcohol in a public place begets undesirable behavior.” N.Y. State Legis. Ann. 150 (1977), quoted in Bellanca, 452 U.S. at 718, 69 L. Ed. 2d at 361, 101 S. Ct. at 2601. See also Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 726.

Turning next to the question of whether the village’s ordinance was narrowly tailored, the court reiterated that the ordinance did not, in fact, impose any restrictions at all on a dancer’s ability to convey an erotic message. Rather, it merely prohibited sexually oriented businesses from serving alcohol to customers while nude or seminude dancing is going on. That, the court explained, is not a restriction on erotic expression, but a prohibition of nonexpressive conduct (serving and consuming alcohol) during the presentation of expressive conduct. In the court’s view, the first amendment does not entitle a bar, its dancers or its patrons to have alcohol available while nude or seminude dancing is taking place. Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 726. The court cited numerous authorities from other jurisdictions to the same effect. See, e.g., Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control v. Alcoholic Beverage Control Appeals Board, 99 Cal. App. 4th 880, 895, 121 Cal. Rptr. 2d 729, 741 (2002) (“The state *** has not prohibited dancers from performing with the utmost level of erotic expression. They are simply forbidden to do so in establishments that serve alcohol, and the Constitution is not thereby offended”).

The court next observed that the village’s ordinance was limited to adult entertainment establishments and was inapplicable to theaters, performing art centers and other venues where performances of serious artistic merit are regularly offered. Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 727. Finally, it noted that the ordinance’s prohibition was no greater than was essential to furtherance of the village’s substantial interest in combating the secondary effects resulting from the combination of nude or seminude dancing and alcohol consumption. That was so, in the court’s view, “because, as a practical matter, a complete ban of alcohol on the premises of adult entertainment establishments is the only way the Village can advance that interest.” (Emphasis in original.) Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 727.

In light of the foregoing, the court concluded that the Village’s ordinance did not violate the first amendment. Wrote the court:

“The regulation has no impact whatsoever on the tavern’s ability to offer nude or semi-nude dancing to its patrons; it seeks to regulate alcohol and nude or semi-nude dancing without prohibiting either. The citizens of the Village of Somerset may still buy a drink and watch nude or semi-nude dancing. They are not, however, constitutionally entitled to do both at the same time and in the same place. Gary, 311 F.3d at 1338 (holding that there is no generalized right to associate with other adults in alcohol-purveying establishments with other adults). The deprivation of alcohol does not prevent the observer from witnessing nude or semi-nude dancing, or the dancer from conveying an erotic message. Perhaps a sober patron will find the performance less tantalizing, and the dancer might therefore feel less appreciated (not necessarily from the reduction in ogling and cat calls, but certainly from any decrease in the amount of tips she might otherwise receive). And we do not doubt Ben’s Bar’s assertion that its profit margin will suffer if it is unable to serve alcohol to its patrons. But the First Amendment rights of each are not offended when the show goes on without liquor.” Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 728.

The analysis employed by the court in Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d 702, was subsequently followed by the Seventh Circuit in Joelner v. Village of Washington Park, 378 F.3d 613 (7th Cir. 2004). While decisions of the Seventh Circuit are not binding on this tribunal (Bowman v. American River Transportation Co., 217 Ill. 2d 75, 91 (2005)), its decision in Ben’s Bar was recently adopted by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 181 South, Inc. v. Fischer, 454 F.3d 228 (3d Cir. 2006), and we believe that it constitutes persuasive authority on the issues presented by this case. We therefore elect to follow it.

Under the four-part test articulated in Ben’s Bar, section 4 — 60—140(d) of the Municipal Code of Chicago, the ordinance at issue in this case, does not offend the first amendment to the United States Constitution. First, as with the Somerset village ordinance at issue in Ben’s Bar, section 4 — 60—140(d) of Chicago’s Municipal Code was directed toward the regulation of alcohol sales and consumption in inappropriate locations, a matter within the City’s general police powers. See BZAPS, Inc. v. City of Mankato, 268 F.3d 603, 608 (8th Cir. 2001) (city is entitled under its police power to prohibit the sale of alcohol in a location that features adult entertainment). Second, the ordinance does not completely prohibit nude or seminude dancing. It merely prohibits such performances at establishments licenced to sell alcohol. Where alcohol is not sold or served, nude and seminude dancing is not prohibited by the City of Chicago. Venues providing nude or seminude dancing have operated and continue to operate in the City in accordance with state law and local ordinances.

We next consider the third step of Ben’s Bar, which specifies that the challenged regulation must be aimed not at the suppression of expression, but rather at combating the negative secondary effects caused by adult entertainment establishments. Resolution of this issue turns on the predominate concerns motivating the law’s enactment. Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 723; see Joelner, 378 F.3d at 624; R.VS., L.L.C. v. City of Rockford, 361 F.3d 402, 407-08 (7th Cir. 2004); G.M. Enterprises v. Town of St. Joseph, 350 F.3d 631, 637 (7th Cir. 2003). In evaluating a municipality’s regulatory motivations, we are free to take into account a wide variety of materials, including, but not limited to, the text of the regulation or ordinance, any preamble or express legislative findings associated with it, and studies and information of which legislators were clearly aware. See Joelner, 378 F.3d at 624. The inquiry at this stage of the analysis is highly deferential to the legislative body that enacted the ordinance. See XLP Corp. v. County of Lake, 359 Ill. App. 3d 239, 246 (2005).

Just as the Somerset village board made legislative findings in support of the ordinance upheld by the Seventh Circuit in Ben’s Bar, the Chicago city council detailed its concerns in enacting the ordinance at issue in this case. The ordinance was part of a package of ordinances and ordinance amendments adopted in 1993 to establish “adult uses” within various zoning districts in the City. In the preamble to those amendments, the Chicago city council explained:

“Experience in the City of Chicago as well as in other cities has shown that adult uses in certain areas of a city may lead to increased levels of criminal activity, including but not limited to prostitution and assault; and

Merchants in some commercial areas of the City justifiably are concerned that the location of adult use establishments in such areas will have a serious negative effect; and In fact, the experiences of Seattle, Washington, and Detroit, Michigan, among other cities, have demonstrated that adult use establishments may degrade the quality of the area in which they are located and may have a blighting effect on a city; and

Adult uses which continued to operate as nonconforming uses have had a deleterious effect on surrounding neighborhoods to a much greater extent than many other uses; and

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The reasonable regulation of adult uses will provide for the protection of property values and will protect City residents and persons who work within the City from the adverse effects of adult uses, while providing those who desire to patronize adult use establishments a reasonable opportunity to do so in areas of the establishments; and

Adult uses should be treated as special uses to enable individualized consideration of the effects of an adult use on the surrounding neighborhood ***.”

There is nothing in the record to suggest that these objectives were pretextual. Thomas Smith, assistant commissioner for zoning for the City of Chicago’s department of planning and development, was personally involved in the formulation of the City’s adult use ordinances and he testified in these proceedings. Echoing many of the circumstances reported by Officer O’Brien during his testimony, Smith explained the negative secondary effects adult businesses had caused in the City in the past, particularly in the Old Town, Rush Street and South Loop areas. Smith recounted a variety of criminal activities that were associated with strip clubs and cabarets where liquor was served and “B girls” plied their trade. Conventioneers were bilked of their money. Prostitution was rampant. Illegal earnings were collected by club proprietors and not reported to taxing authorities.

In researching how best to deal with the negative secondary effects of strip clubs and other adult entertainment establishments, Smith’s department consulted groups such as the American Planning Association and the National Institute of Municipal Law Officers. It also obtained and reviewed numerous studies conducted in other major metropolitan areas in addition to those specifically noted by the city council. Most were prepared by city planning departments in connection with local police departments. Among them were reports from the cities of Phoenix, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Los Angeles. Some, including the Minneapolis and St. Paul studies, took into account the specific relationship between the combination of alcohol sales and adult uses on the incidence of neighborhood crime. According to Smith’s testimony, the studies were consistent in showing that the presence of adult entertainment establishments, including strip clubs which served liquor, led to higher crime rates.

While we do not know whether the additional studies discussed by Smith were expressly presented to the city council before it enacted the legislative package which included section 4 — 60—140(d) of the Municipal Code, those studies did inform the recommendations Smith made to the city council, and the concerns he expressed were, in turn, reflected in the legislative preamble adopted by the city council. When one considers the preamble, the text of the ordinance, the historical context in which the 1993 version of the law was enacted, and the undisputed fact that fully nude dancing is permitted by the City in establishments that do not serve alcohol, the notion that section 4 — 60—140(d) of the Municipal Code represents an effort by the City to restrict certain viewpoints or modes of expression is completely untenable. See G.M. Enterprises, 350 F.3d at 638.

In R.V.S., L.L.C., 361 F.3d at 409-10, the court found that the predominate concerns motivating Rockford to enact a municipal ordinance regulating “exotic dancing nightclubs” related “to combating prostitution, crime and other negative externalities” notwithstanding the fact that the record included testimony by one of the city’s aldermen, in response to questions regarding the purpose of the ordinance, that “there were some concerns that some people just don’t like this type of entertainment.” The Seventh Circuit correctly declined to give that testimony dispositive effect, noting, among other things, that “what motivates one legislator to support a statute is not necessarily what motivates others to enact it. [Citations.]” R.V.S., L.L.C., 361 F.3d at 410. The City’s position in this case is unencumbered by even that level of uncertainty. In contrast to R.VS., L.L.C., there is nothing at all in this case to suggest, directly or indirectly, that the City harbored any hostility of any kind toward the expressive conduct in which the dancers at Pooh Bah’s club were engaged. Based on the record before us here, combating the negative secondary effects caused by adult entertainment establishments was not only the predominate motive for the City’s actions, it was the only motivation.

In an attempt to refute this conclusion, Pooh Bah argues that the language used in a prior version of section 4 — 60—140(d) of the Municipal Code can be read as evincing an intention by the city council to reach the content of expression rather than its secondary effects. That contention is untenable for three reasons. First, unlike the preamble applicable to the current version of the law, the language invoked by Pooh Bah, which states that the ordinance “controls the form of entertainment in places licensed to sell alcoholic beverages” is not part of the ordinance itself. It is merely a generic description of the legislation included by the committee on police, fire, personnel, schools and municipal institution in its recommendation to the city council that the ordinance be approved. Second, even if the committee’s views could be imputed to the city council and even if the language it employed could be read as actually referring to the content of conduct that is protected, reference to content is not the same as suppression of content. Sammy’s of Mobile, Ltd. v. City of Mobile, 140 F.3d 993, 998 (11th Cir. 1998). Like the present law, the version of the ordinance invoked by Pooh Bah does not impose any limitations on nude or seminude dancing. Its effect is simply to ban alcohol sales where such dancing takes place. Finally, and perhaps most basically, the prior version of the law is not at issue here. It is the subsequent 1993 version of the ordinance that gave rise to these proceedings, and the preamble adopted in connection with that ordinance is what reflects the city council’s motivation in adopting that version of the law.

Because section 4 — 60—140(d) of the Chicago Municipal Code thus satisfies steps two and three of the test set forth in Ben’s Bar, we proceed to step four, namely, whether the ordinance is designed to serve a substantial government interest, narrowly tailored, and reasonable alternative avenues of communication remain available or, alternatively, the ordinance furthers an important or substantial government interest and the restriction on expressive conduct is no greater than is essential in furtherance of that interest. Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 722. As previously discussed, this inquiry encapsulates the intermediate standard of review applicable to first amendment challenges to adult entertainment regulations. Under Ben’s Bar and the precedent on which it is based, assessing whether an ordinance serves a substantial government interest under this standard requires a court to determine whether the municipality has adequately demonstrated that a connection exists between the speech regulated by the ordinance and the secondary effects the ordinance was designed to address. Ben’s Bar, 316 F.3d at 724. In making this determination, the appropriate focus is not the actual intent of the governmental body. The government’s actual intent relates to the earlier inquiry regarding the predominant motivation behind its decision to enact the law. The question at this stage is whether the government can show that the regulation serves a current governmental interest. See Giovani Caradola, Ltd. v. Bason, 303 F.3d 507, 515 (4th Cir. 2002). The harms to which the law is addressed must be real, not merely conjectural, and the law must alleviate those harms in a direct and material way. See Giovani Caradola, Ltd., 303 F.3d at 515, quoting Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Ass’n v. FCC, 275 F.3d 337, 356 (4th Cir. 2001).

The current governmental interest advanced by the City in support of section 4 — 60—140(d) of its Municipal Code is the avoidance of the negative secondary effects which result from the sale and consumption of alcohol at adult entertainment establishments. That “[ljiquor and sex are an explosive combination” (Blue Canary Corp. v. City of Milwaukee, 251 F.3d 1121, 1124 (7th Cir. 2001)) is a proposition so frequently confirmed by human experience that it can scarcely be questioned. Nude and topless dancing in bars has “a long history of spawning deleterious effects,” including “prostitution and the criminal abuse and exploitation of young women.” Steakhouse, Inc. v. City of Raleigh, 166 F.3d 634, 637 (4th Cir. 1999). Where alcohol is served in establishments offering nude or seminude dancing, secondary blight is frequently reported. Disturbances involving lascivious conduct, drunkenness, larcenies, assaults and narcotics are common. See, e.g., Steakhouse, Inc., 166 F.3d at 637; California v. LaRue, 409 U.S. at Ill, 34 L. Ed. 2d at 347-48, 93 S. Ct. at 393.

The negative effects of combining alcohol with sexual stimulation was corroborated in this case by Dr. Allen Kodish, a practicing psychiatrist and member of the faculty at the University of Chicago. Dr. Kodish, who was called as a witness by the City, testified that alcohol consumption facilitates sexual and aggressive impulses and impairs social judgment. When combined with sexual stimulation, it produces an effect “associated with an increase in violent sexual acting out, acts of criminal behavior.” Because of this, drinking alcohol while viewing naked or nearly naked dancers can lead a person to act on various impulses, including touching, screaming, and engaging in fights or other risky behavior. While not everyone who drinks alcohol reacts that way, Kodish explained that the combination of alcohol and sexual stimulation increases the likelihood that they will. In support of his conclusions, Kodish discussed a study entitled “The Effects of Male Social Drinking on Fantasy,” which showed that increased alcohol intake is associated with increased sexual and aggressive thoughts.

The City also adduced testimony from Dr. Wesley Skogan, a professor