CARNAL NATION

The Utah Supreme Court ruled on Friday that that the state's strip club tax should not apply to businesses providing escort services, reports the Deseret News.  Erotic dance clubs in the Beehive State currently pay a 10% tax on cover charges, food and drink; the revenue from those taxes is earmarked specifically for treatment for sex offenders and investigations into internet-based child sex crimes.

A coalition of strip clubs and escort services had sued the state in 2004, claiming that the tax violated their First Amendment rights.  Associate Justice Matthew Durrant said that the tax was not designed to suppress the clubs’ right to free speech, and also indicated that the language of the strip club law was very specific.

The court ruled, however, that the legal definition of an escort service was too broad and therefore unconstitutional.  The law itself does not refer to nudity or sex, but simply defines an “escort” as “anyone who accompanies another for compensated companionship.”  This wording, Durrant wrote, would encompass a lot of people, including “individuals who are paid for providing care for the elderly as well as those who are paid as tour guides.”

Chief Justice Christine Dunham wrote the dissenting opinion; she agreed that the law did not define escorts well enough, but also felt that the law as a whole should be “subject to strict scrutiny.”

In 2004, Utah became the first state to tax strip clubs.  The court’s decision Friday may now convince other states to start taxing strip clubs.