Judge rejects county sex club ordinance

District Judge Kathleen Delaney has ruled that Clark County's sex club ordinance is "unconstitutionally vague" and violates the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.

"The language of the ordinance does not limit, much less define, the persons and/or activities that may fall under the definition of sex club," Delaney wrote in a nine-page decision filed Wednesday.

She said the code "opens the door for "arbitrary or discriminatory enforcement."

The decision was the result of a lawsuit filed by the owners of the Red Rooster, 6405 Greyhound Lane, in January 2009, challenging the ordinance's constitutionality. County investigators cited the Red Rooster as a public nuisance under the sex club ordinance in December 2008.

"Plaintiffs have met their burden in proving that vagueness so permeates the sex club definition that it does not provide adequate notice to a person of ordinary intelligence what conduct is, in fact, prohibited," Delaney wrote.

She said the ordinance also "fails to define the majority of persons to whom it may be applied" and uses the "open-ended term, 'or similar alternative lifestyle,' as a catchall" phrase.

Delaney said investigators under the current language could cite a club even if sex isn't taking place.

"The owners of a business establishment could be punished with a misdemeanor without anyone ever engaging in any form of specified sexual activity, as long as an officer believed the opportunity for it was there," she wrote.

District Attorney David Roger, whose office is defending the county, declined to comment on the judge's decision.

"We will review the court's decision and decide whether to appeal her ruling or go back and redraft the ordinance," Roger said.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.
com or 702-380-8135 or read more courts coverage at lvlegalnews.com.