Tahiti Bar, Incorporated Liquor License Case

142 A.2d 491, 186 Pa. Super. 214, 1958 Pa. Super. LEXIS 463
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 11, 1958
DocketAppeal, No. 268
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 142 A.2d 491 (Tahiti Bar, Incorporated Liquor License Case) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tahiti Bar, Incorporated Liquor License Case, 142 A.2d 491, 186 Pa. Super. 214, 1958 Pa. Super. LEXIS 463 (Pa. Ct. App. 1958).

Opinion

Opinion by

Ervin, J.,

This is an appeal by Tahiti Bar, Incorporated, from an order of the court below dismissing an appeal by the licensee from an order of suspension entered by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. The court below found as a fact “that the entertainment in each instance- here was lewd, immoral or improper” and that “The entertainment in each of these cases was a predominant appeal to prurient interest.” The entertainment consisted of various dance routines described as “bumps and grinds” by female entertainers who had removed practically all of their clothing. Article IV of the Liquor Code deals with licenses and regulations. [216]*216Section 493 (47 PS §4-493) provides in pertinent part that it shall be unlawful: “(10) ... for any licensee, under any circumstances, to permit in any licensed premises any lewd, immoral or improper entertainment, regardless of whether a permit to provide entertainment has been obtained or not.”

The defendant contends (1) that the language is unconstitutionally vague, (2) that the entertainment was not obscene and (3) that it was entitled to a jury trial.

At the outset it should be recognized that this case involves the temporary suspension of a liquor license. It is not a case where a book, magazine or moving picture has been restrained before its distribution or exhibition. It is not even a case where a criminal penalty is involved. It is difficult for us to comprehend how an "exotic" dance is in any way related to freedom of speech or press. The liquor business is unlawful and its conduct is only lawful to the extent and in the manner permitted by statute: Sawdey Liquor License Case, 169 Pa. Superior Ct. 214, 82 A. 2d 713. A liquor license is a privilege and not a property right: Cavanaugh v. Gelder, 364 Pa. 361, cert. den. 340 U.S. 822, 72 A. 2d 85; Spankard's Liquor License Case, 138 Pa. Superior Ct. 251, 10 A. 2d 899. In the granting and revocation of liquor licenses under the police power, the Commonwealth may establish the regulations and terms upon which the license may be granted and retained: Com. v. Speer, 157 Pa. Superior Ct. 197, 42 A. 2d 94.

In Cavanaugh v. Celder, supra, at page 366, our Supreme Court said: “It [the legislature] had the power to absolutely forbid or to permit under specified conditions, entertainment in licensed establishments.”

Was the language used in the Liquor Code, prohibiting entertainment upon the licensed premises which [217]*217was “lewd, immoral or improper” (emphasis added), so vague as to be prohibited by the first and fourteenth Amendments to the Federal Constitution? We think not. The court below treated these words as interchangeable synonyms for “obscene.” Certainly the word “lewd” is a synonym for “obscene” and vice versa.

In Roth v. United States, Alberts v. California, 354 U.S. 476, 1 L. Ed. 2d 1498, 77 S. Ct. 1304, it was held that obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press. In the majority opinion written by Mr. Justice BRENNAN, he said (77 S. Ct. 1304, 1309): "But implicit in the history of the First Amendment is the rejection of obscenity as utterly without redeeming social importance. This rejection for that reason is mirrored in the universal judgment that obscenity should be restrained, reflected in the international agreement of over 50 nations, in the obscenity laws of all of the 48 States, and in the 20 obscenity laws enacted by the Congress from 1842 to 1956. This is the same judgment expressed by this Court in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568, 571-572, 62 S. Ct. 766, 769, 86 L. Ed. 1031: `. . . There are certain well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech, the prevention and punishment of which have never been thought to raise any Constitutional problem. These include the lewd and obscene. . . . It has been well observed that such utterances are no essential part of any exposition of ideas, and are of such slight social value as a step to truth that any benefit that may be derived from them is clearly outweighed by the social interest in order and morality. . . .'" (Emphasis added)

In Com. v. Randall, 183 Pa. Superior Ct. 603, allocatur refused, 184 Pa. Superior Ct. 603, cert. den. 78 S. Ct. 539, 133 A. 2d 276, we recently held that the Act of June 3, 1953, P.L. 277, § 1, 18 PS § 4532, which [218]*218provides that whoever by any act corrupts or tends to corrupt the morals of any child under the age of 18 years is guilty of a misdemeanor, is not so vague and indefinite that it violates the Federal Constitution. In that case, at page 610, we said: “In the censorship cases the courts were concerned not only with the question of whether the language in the statute was so vague and indefinite as to constitute a denial of due process but also with that part of the Constitution which has to do with the right of free speech. In the present case we are not concerned with the freedom of speech provision. We are concerned only with the question of whether the statute which prohibits any acts which corrupt or tend to corrupt the morals of a child under 18 years of age is sufficiently clear and definite to advise the public of the proscribed conduct.”

The statute involved in the Roth case was the federal obscenity statute which declares to be unmailable “Every obscene, lewd, lascivious, or filthy book, pamphlet, picture, paper, letter, writing, print or other publication of an indecent character; . . . .” (Emphasis added) In the Alberts case, the California Penal Code made anyone who “writes, . . . publishes . . . any obscene or indecent writing, paper, or book . . . .” guilty of a misdemeanor. The Supreme Court of the United States found little difficulty with the use of the language in either statute. The words used in the Pa. Liquor Code provide substantially the same concept as do the words of the federal statute or the California statute and the words, taken together, are sufficiently precise. We are of the opinion that the words used in the Liquor Code, when taken together, are sufficiently clear to enable any ordinary person to understand what kind of entertainment is proscribed. The court below, in its opinion, expressly found that the entertainment “was a predominant appeal to prurient inter[219]*219est.” In its opinion the court below made express reference to the Roth and Alberts cases hereinbefore referred to and we are convinced that the proper standard for evaluating the entertainment was used.

The entertainment, as shown by undisputed evidence, was lewd or obscene as well as immoral under any definition of these terms. In Roth v. U.S., supra, at page 1309, Mr. Justice BRENNAN said: "It is strenuously urged that these obscenity statutes offend the constitutional guaranties because they punish incitation to impure sexual thoughts, not shown to be related to any overt antisocial conduct which is or may be incited in the persons stimulated to such thoughts. In Roth, the trial judge instructed the jury: `The words "obscene, lewd and lascivious" as used in the law, signify that form of immorality which has relation to sexual impurity and has a tendency to excite lustful thoughts.' (Emphasis added.) In Alberts, the trial judge applied the test laid down in People v. Wepplo, 78 Cal. App. 2d Supp.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
142 A.2d 491, 186 Pa. Super. 214, 1958 Pa. Super. LEXIS 463, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tahiti-bar-incorporated-liquor-license-case-pasuperct-1958.