BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Union Township's law regulating Rumors strip club is so badly written that it is unconstitutional, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit indicated Friday.
"It doesn't make any sense to me," Presiding Judge Boyce F. Martin Jr. told the Clermont County township's lawyer. "Go back and rewrite it the correct way."
The law doesn't need it, rejoined township attorney Lawrence E. Barbiere, and everything the court wants is in there if the judges will look.
However, comments from Judges Cornelia G. Kennedy and Eugene E. Siler Jr. also suggested he was going to lose. A decision probably is weeks or months away.
The case began when Union Township said it would hold a hearing into allegations that the adult cabaret had violated its permit. Attorneys H. Louis Sirkin and Laura A. Abrams challenged the township law and won.
U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel struck down the law last summer, saying the absence of time limits for decisions on permits and permit renewals was a fatal flaw.
Granted, Judge Spiegel said, the law gave trustees 30 days to rule on a completed application, but it did not say when other officials had to produce reports required for the completed application.
Judge Spiegel didn't leave it there. He told township officials how to bring their ordinance into compliance with Supreme Court and 6th Circuit decisions on regulating sexually oriented businesses.
Rather than rewrite the law, Union Township appealed and brought Ms. Abrams and Mr. Barbiere before the 6th Circuit for oral arguments.
Refusal to rewrite the law was a mistake, Judge Martin said, because "poor draftsmanship" bedeviled the ordinance. "We've set it out pretty clearly what these resolutions can say and cannot say."
When Mr. Barbiere said township law should be "construed" to provide time limits, Judge Martin responded, "That ain't good enough. You've got to be specific."
When Mr. Barbiere argued that admittedly imprecise language really imposed time limits, Judge Martin said that "just confuses me even more" and cross-references were "completely inconsistent." Judge Martin said "clear, succinct and understandable" laws have been around for years, and when local governments followed those models, "they win every time. Those who won't listen to the lawyers lose every time."
Judge Kennedy agreed that Judge Spiegel's reading of the ordinance was "reasonable" because she, too, could not find the required time limits.
When it was her turn, Ms. Abrams joined the judges' attack, saying Rumors should not have to depend on interpretations of the local law to protect its rights. "The resolution itself must provide procedural safeguards."
Ms. Abrams said the missing time limits allow township officials to delay reports required for a completed permit application and "ensure the denial of this permit."
