Club Madonna Inc. v. City of Miami Beach

42 F.4th 1231
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedAugust 1, 2022
Docket20-14292
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 42 F.4th 1231 (Club Madonna Inc. v. City of Miami Beach) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Club Madonna Inc. v. City of Miami Beach, 42 F.4th 1231 (11th Cir. 2022).

Opinion

USCA11 Case: 20-14292 Date Filed: 08/01/2022 Page: 1 of 66

[PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________

No. 20-14292 ____________________

CLUB MADONNA INC., a Florida corporation d.b.a. Club Madonna, Plaintiff-Appellant- Cross Appellee, versus CITY OF MIAMI BEACH, a Florida municipal corporation,

Defendant-Appellee- Cross Appellant. USCA11 Case: 20-14292 Date Filed: 08/01/2022 Page: 2 of 66

2 Opinion of the Court 20-14292

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 1:16-cv-25378-FAM ____________________

Before NEWSOM and MARCUS, Circuit Judges, and STORY,* District Judge. MARCUS, Circuit Judge: Over and over, laws regulating adult entertainment estab- lishments have raised constitutional questions. The law at issue today is no different. After a thirteen-year-old victim of human trafficking per- formed at the City of Miami Beach (“the City”)’s only fully nude strip club, Club Madonna, Inc. (“the Club”), the City came down hard on the Club. It enacted two closely intertwined ordinances (collectively, “the Ordinance”) that required all nude strip clubs to follow a record-keeping and identification-checking regime in or- der to ensure that each individual performer is at least eighteen years old -- the records of which the City could demand to see at any time -- or face stiff penalties. The passage of the Ordinance

* Honorable Richard W. Story, United States District Judge, for the Northern District of Georgia, sitting by designation. USCA11 Case: 20-14292 Date Filed: 08/01/2022 Page: 3 of 66

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sparked a years-long legal fight between the Club and the City, which reached this Court once before and is before us again. The Club’s challenges implicate several questions of first im- pression. The Club says that the Ordinance violates the First and Fourth Amendments, and that it is partially preempted by federal and state law. The district court ruled for the City at summary judgment on the Club’s first two claims, ruled for the Club on its federal preemption claim at summary judgment, and ruled for the City on the Club’s state law preemption claim at the motion-to- dismiss stage for failure to state a claim. The Club now appeals the court’s rulings on its First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, and state law preemption claims. Meanwhile, the City cross-appeals the district court’s ruling on the Club’s federal preemption claim. We affirm on all counts. First, although the Ordinance im- plicates the First Amendment because it singles out an industry that engages in expressive activity for special regulation, we still affirm because the Ordinance satisfies intermediate scrutiny. Second, the Ordinance’s warrantless-search provision does not violate the Fourth Amendment because the adult entertainment industry is a closely regulated industry for Fourth Amendment purposes, and the warrantless-search provision satisfies the administrative-search exception because it can be narrowly read to avoid Fourth Amend- ment concerns. Third, the Ordinance’s employment-verification requirement that any worker or performer “[i]s either a U.S. Citi- zen, legal resident, or otherwise legally permitted to be employed within the United States of America” is preempted by federal USCA11 Case: 20-14292 Date Filed: 08/01/2022 Page: 4 of 66

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immigration law because federal law exempts businesses from ver- ifying the employment eligibility of independent contractors and casual hires -- the type of workers that the Ordinance directly tar- gets -- so the statute’s penalty scheme for enforcing that employ- ment-eligibility requirement stands as an obstacle to the federal regulatory system. And finally, the Club’s state law conflict preemption claim fails because there is no Florida law that cabins the City’s ability to levy fines against the Club for violating the Or- dinance’s requirements. I. The story of this case starts with a tragic set of facts. On January 6, 2014, City law enforcement officers discovered that a thirteen-year-old victim of human trafficking was being forced to dance nude at the Club after she ran away from home and was taken by four adult captors. The City issued an emergency order that suspended the Club’s occupational licenses for six months, but it reinstated the licenses after the Club agreed to issue written se- curity standards, hire a Chief Compliance Officer, check at least two forms of identification before letting a performer dance, and maintain records of which performers could dance at the Club. This detente ended quickly. The Club repeatedly failed to follow its agreement with the City, and the City was not pleased. To put teeth in its regime, the City passed the Ordinance. We pre- viously described the Ordinance’s requirements this way: USCA11 Case: 20-14292 Date Filed: 08/01/2022 Page: 5 of 66

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First, Section 18-913 requires nude dancing es- tablishments such as the Club to check the age and work eligibility of “any worker or performer” by re- quiring that they “provide proof of an original, law- fully issued state or federal photo identification, and one additional form of identification.” The owner or manager of the establishment must also “[v]erify the accuracy” of the documents by making a “sworn statement . . . confirming that the individual per- former is at least 18 years of age.” In the same sworn statement, the owner or manager must “[c]onfirm” that the worker is “performing of her or his own ac- cord, and is not being forced or intimidated into per- forming or working.” Code of the City of Miami Beach § 18-913. Section 18-913 also requires the busi- ness to keep a log of workers as they enter and exit the premises and to make all of the required docu- mentation available “for inspection by the city upon demand.” Id. ... Finally, Section 18-915 describes the penalties for failure to comply with the requirements of Sec- tions 18-913. . . . For a first, second, and third offense within specified time periods, a business shall be fined $5,000, $10,000, and $20,000, respectively. For a sec- ond offense within three years, the City will shut down the business for three months. And a third of- fense allows the City to exercise its discretion to close the business for up to a year. Code of the City of Mi- ami Beach § 18-915. An establishment charged with USCA11 Case: 20-14292 Date Filed: 08/01/2022 Page: 6 of 66

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violating the ordinance has a right to an administra- tive hearing and may appeal the decision to “a court of competent jurisdiction.” Id. Club Madonna, Inc. v. City of Miami Beach, 924 F.3d 1370, 1376 (11th Cir. 2019) (hereinafter “Club Madonna I”). Along with veri- fying that the performer or worker is at least eighteen years old, the Ordinance requires that nude dancing establishments confirm she “[i]s either a U.S. Citizen, legal resident, or otherwise legally permitted to be employed within the United States of America.” Code of the City of Miami Beach § 18-913(1)(b). II. Unhappy with this development, the Club sued the City of Miami Beach in the Southern District of Florida on December 30, 2016, challenging the constitutionality of the Ordinance and the City’s use of its emergency powers to suspend the Club’s business license. In its Complaint, the Club threw the kitchen sink at the Ordinance: It challenged the Ordinance under the First Amend- ment, the Fourth Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment (rais- ing both Due Process Clause and Equal Protection Clause claims), and the Eighth Amendment, and on Contract Clause and Suprem- acy Clause grounds.1 The City moved to dismiss on many grounds

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42 F.4th 1231, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/club-madonna-inc-v-city-of-miami-beach-ca11-2022.