The New York Court of Appeals has rejected the must-watched effort by Nite Moves, a Albany-area strip club, to exempt itself from sales tax on the grounds that exotic dancing was protectable First Amendment expression. The high court ruled that the club failed to carry its burden to prve that the dances were “choreographed performances.” The quote of the day, however, goes to the dissent:
“Perhaps for similar reasons, I do not read Hustler magazine. I would rather read the New Yorker. I would be appalled however, if the state were to exact from Hustler a tax that the New Yorker did not have to pay on the ground that what appears in Hustler is insufficiently ‘cultural or artistic.’”
Expect similar know-it-when-you-see it analysis in any copycat cases.
