Ninth Circuit Upholds Laws Restricting the Advertising of Prostitution
In Coyote Publishing v. MIller, the Ninth Circuit today overturned Judge Mahan's decision that had ruled Nevada's laws restricting advertising of legal brothels unconstitutional. It is the second reversal this week for Judge Mahan.
In an opinion that ironically begins by quoting George Bernard Shaw regarding the losing nature of the fight against prosititution, Judge Berzon upholds NRS 201.430, which limits advertisement of brothels within counties where such establishments are legal, and NRS 201.440, which bans advertisement of brothels in counties where they are not permitted. The Court found that the statutes are constitutional limitations on commercial speech, subject to intermediate scrutiny. Finding that Nevada has a substantial interest in limiting the commodification of sex, the Court held the limitation is constitutional.
The Court was careful to assert that it is not the underlying act that is being repressed, but merely the notion that such an act should be performed for money. Or at least, not in Clark County, "where by far most Nevadans live (and where most outsiders visit)." The Court refers to the ban of adervertisement of an activity legal in all but six counties in Nevada an "idiiosyncratic balance between various important but competing state interests-- the pro brothel balance being a desire to curb the "negative health and safety impacts of uregulated, illegal prostition." Although, again, apparently not in Clark County.
I doubt we've heard the last of this..