Wild Wild West Gambling Hall & Brewery, Inc. v. City of Cripple Creek

853 F. Supp. 371, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7156, 1994 WL 237016
CourtDistrict Court, D. Colorado
DecidedMay 26, 1994
DocketCiv. A. No. 94-B-729
StatusPublished

This text of 853 F. Supp. 371 (Wild Wild West Gambling Hall & Brewery, Inc. v. City of Cripple Creek) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wild Wild West Gambling Hall & Brewery, Inc. v. City of Cripple Creek, 853 F. Supp. 371, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7156, 1994 WL 237016 (D. Colo. 1994).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

BABCOCK, District Judge.

Plaintiff Wild Wild West Gambling Hall & Brewery, Inc. (Wild West) seeks declaratory and injunctive relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. section 2201 et seq as to the constitutionality of the defendant City of Cripple Creek’s (City) ordinance section 7-16 titled “Solicitation Regulation.” Also named as defendants are Edward Stauffer, the Chief of Police of the Cripple Creek Police Department, Beth Caddy, Code Enforcement Officer, and Douglas Houston, Lieutenant of the Cripple Creek Police Department. Having considered affidavits and briefs submitted by the parties in addition to evidence taken at the preliminary injunction hearing on May 12, 1994, I enter this judgment declaring ordinance section 7-16 unconstitutional in violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

I. FINDINGS OF FACT

In November, 1990, the voters of Colorado passed an amendment to the Colorado Constitution allowing limited stakes gaming in three Colorado communities including the town of Cripple Creek. Cripple Creek, a popular tourist site, presently contains twenty-five gaming establishments including Wild West. All but one are located on a 4 block stretch of Bennett Avenue, Cripple Creek’s main street. Bennett Avenue also contains other businesses, City Hall, and the Teller County Courthouse.

The advent of gaming in Cripple Creek has resulted in an additional 8,000-10,000 people visiting Cripple Creek during peak tourist days. At times the town’s streets and sidewalks become quite congested. In July, 1991, Cripple Creek enacted Ordinance No. 1991-19 which included section 7-16 entitled “Solicitation Regulation.” In relevant part it, it provides:

No person shall personally solicit customers or distribute or display literature, coupons, signs, posters, coins, tokens, or other advertising products or services in or on the public right-of-way, consisting of streets and sidewalks used by the public, nor shall any person attempt by the use of any such displays or products to personally, physically, or orally coax persons on the public right-of-way into a private place of business.

In an effort to promote its business, Wild West sought to inform passersby of its unique characteristics which distinguish Wild West from the other casinos in town. These features include an on-site brewery and, more importantly, according to Wild West, the “loosest slots in town.” One method by which Wild West seeks to advertise the “loose slots” and the brewery is to have an employee stationed outside the casino’s front door. This employee, sometimes dressed in western period attire, greets passersby, opens the casino door and invites them in while telling them about the brewery and the “loose” slot machines. The “greeter” also offers the potential customer a free $1 token, a free beverage coupon, or both. As part of this effort to create goodwill, the “greeter” also at times gives passersby information about Cripple Creek’s lodging, restaurants, and attractions.

In the past year, the Cripple Creek police have issued to the Wild West “greeters” multiple summons and complaints for alleged violations of section 7-16. As a rule, the police would write the summons and complaints when the casino “greeter” or the passerby was seen standing on any portion of the public sidewalk during the solicitation. There exists no “safe zone” or “safe time” to allow personal solicitation of or coupon distribution to potential customers on the public sidewalks, streets, or other public areas of Cripple Creek.

During the preliminary injunction hearing, the parties agreed to and I ordered consolidation for trial on the merits of plaintiffs motion for preliminary injunction and claim for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief.

II. LAW

Freedom of speech, is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United [374]*374States Constitution and is protected from invasion by state action by the Fourteenth Amendment. Lovell v. City of Griffin, 303 U.S. 444, 450, 58 S.Ct. 666, 668, 82 L.Ed. 949 (1938). Municipal ordinances adopted under state authority constitute such state action and are within the prohibition of the First Amendment. Lovell, Id.

For the first two hundred years of our nation’s history, courts did not recognize protection of commercial speech. See Valentine v. Chrestensen, 316 U.S. 52, 54, 62 S.Ct. 920, 921, 86 L.Ed. 1262 (1942). In 1976, the Supreme Court extended First Amendment protection to commercial speech in Virginia State Bd. of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc., 425 U.S. 748, 762, 96 S.Ct. 1817, 1825-26, 48 L.Ed.2d 346 (1976) but it recognized a lesser measure of protection than was afforded other constitutionally guaranteed forms of expression. Ohralik v. Ohio State Bar Ass’n, 436 U.S. 447, 457, 98 S.Ct. 1912, 1919, 56 L.Ed.2d 444 (1978). In extending First Amendment protection to commercial speech, the courts long ago rejected the “highly paternalistic” view that government can or should suppress commercial speech. Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Comm’n of N.Y., 447 U.S. 557, 562, 100 S.Ct. 2343, 2349, 65 L.Ed.2d 341 (1980). Rather, “people will perceive their own best interests if only they are well enough informed, and ... the best means to that end is to open the channels of communication, rather than to close them.” Virginia State Bd. of Pharmacy, 425 U.S. at 770, 96 S.Ct. at 1829. Regulation that serves only to restrict the information that flows to consumers fosters “the assumption] that the public is not sophisticated enough to realize the limitations of advertising, and that the public is better kept in ignorance than trusted with correct but incomplete information.” Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, 433 U.S. 350, 374-375, 97 S.Ct. 2691, 2704, 53 L.Ed.2d 810 (1977).

After granting commercial speech limited First Amendment protection, the Supreme Court then set out in Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Comm’n of N.Y., 447 U.S. 557, 566, 100 S.Ct. 2343, 65 L.Ed.2d 341 (1980) the Mowing four-part analysis to determine the constitutional contours of restrictions on commercial speech:

(1) does the commercial speech involved concern lawful activity which is not misleading; and

(2) is the asserted governmental interest in regulating such speech substantial; if so,

(3) does the regulation directly advance the governmental interest asserted; and

(4) is the regulation more extensive than necessary to serve the governmental interest.

See, Board of Trustees of State Univ. of N.Y. v. Fox,

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Related

Lovell v. City of Griffin
303 U.S. 444 (Supreme Court, 1938)
Schneider v. State (Town of Irvington)
308 U.S. 147 (Supreme Court, 1939)
Valentine v. Chrestensen
316 U.S. 52 (Supreme Court, 1942)
Grayned v. City of Rockford
408 U.S. 104 (Supreme Court, 1972)
Bates v. State Bar of Arizona
433 U.S. 350 (Supreme Court, 1977)
Ohralik v. Ohio State Bar Assn.
436 U.S. 447 (Supreme Court, 1978)
Metromedia, Inc. v. City of San Diego
453 U.S. 490 (Supreme Court, 1981)
In Re RMJ
455 U.S. 191 (Supreme Court, 1982)
Board of Trustees of State Univ. of NY v. Fox
492 U.S. 469 (Supreme Court, 1989)
Edenfield v. Fane
507 U.S. 761 (Supreme Court, 1993)
Bates v. State Bar of Arizona
433 U.S. 350 (Supreme Court, 1977)
Grayned v. City of Rockford
408 U.S. 104 (Supreme Court, 1972)
In re R. M. J.
455 U.S. 191 (Supreme Court, 1982)

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853 F. Supp. 371, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7156, 1994 WL 237016, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wild-wild-west-gambling-hall-brewery-inc-v-city-of-cripple-creek-cod-1994.