Like many ex-pro athletes, Laveranues Coles has invested in businesses with the money he made from his time as a wide receiver (most notably with the New York Jets). And, like many warm-blooded Americans, he has a sizable appreciation for the female form. Combining those two parts of himself seems like the logical next step, right?
Wrong, according to the Jacksonville, Florida, Zoning Board. Coles wishes to open a bikini bar in the city, but local laws require each potential business of a “sexual” nature to apply for an individual exception to the zoning board. Coles and his lawyers are arguing that this constitutes an unconstitutional prior restraint, leaving the question of what’s an appropriate establishment up to the whims of the board.
Whether Coles has a solid case is a question for people in a different line of work than us, but we’d like to direct your attention to one particularly moving passage from Coles’ lawsuit. His lawyers insist that all dancing in his establishment would be “performed before a consensual audience, all over the age of 18 years, who are desirous of receiving and enjoying the message conveyed by the entertainers of normal human sexual interest and sensuality.”
And who among us wouldn’t enjoy the message conveyed by such entertainers? Coles alleges that his application was rejected simply because the zoning board didn’t like the idea of his business, rather than any legal justification. It shouldn’t surprise him that he has to fight for his bikini bar, however. After all, his company’s name is Trouble Livin’ Life, LLC.
(Via Florida Times-Union)
