Hart Book Stores Inc. v. Edmisten

The issue on these consolidated appeals is the constitutionality of a North Carolina statute providing that a single building that contains an adult bookstore, adult theater, adult mini-theater, massage parlor, or sexual device wares cannot contain a second such ""adult establishment.""1 Two federal district courts determined, in separate suits brought by the proprietors of affected establishments, that the statute abridged freedoms of speech and press protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments, the requirement of equal protection imposed by the Fourteenth Amendment, the due process proscription against vagueness, and the right of privacy guaranteed by the Constitution. On the defendant's appeals, consolidated in this court, we conclude that the Supreme Court decision in Young v. American Mini Theatres, Inc., 427 U.S. 50, 96 S. Ct. 2440, 49 L. Ed. 2d 310 (1976) essentially controls decision here and requires reversal. We do so, and sustain the statute over free speech and press, equal protection, vagueness and privacy objections. The statute under attack prohibits the location of any one ""adult establishment"" in the same ""building, premises, structure, or other facility"" occupied by another adult establishment or sexual device vendor. N.C.Gen.Stat. § 14-202.11. ""Adult establishment"" is defined to include adult bookstores, adult motion picture theaters, and adult mini-theaters, having a ""preponderance"" of wares ""distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on matter depicting, describing, or relating to specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas,"" and also to include massage businesses. Id. § 14-202.10. ""Specified sexual activities"" and ""specified anatomical areas"" are defined as sexually explicit or erotic things. Id. Violations are made misdemeanors, punishable by fines up to $500 and imprisonment up to six months. Id. § 14-202.12.