Judge lets Tootsies strip club defy Miami-Dade COVID curfew, calling it illegal
A Miami-Dade judge ruled a local strip club can keep its dancers earning money past midnight and ignore the curfew imposed three months ago by Mayor Carlos Gimenez as a needed measure against the spread of COVID-19.
The win by Tootsies in Miami Gardens could doom the restrictions countywide, with the club’s lawyers say the ruling likely spells the end of the Gimenez-imposed curfew unless the county wins in its appeal.
Judge Beatrice Butchko issued an order Friday allowing Tootsies to operate all night, saying a statewide decree by Gov. Ron DeSantis limiting local COVID business restrictions left the county unable to keep the club closed overnight. While it allowed counties and cities to set capacity limits for restaurants, the governor’s Sept. 25 order prohibits local governments from issuing COVID rules that keep people from working.
The DeSantis “preemption necessarily includes curfews which, by their terms, prevent businesses from operating and further have the effect of reducing their capacity to zero,” Butchko wrote.
Sports radio host Andy Slater first reported on the Tootsies suit.
Butchko’s order also bars the county from enforcing the part of Gimenez’s order that specifies restaurants must close their dining rooms when the curfew begins. Lawyers and representatives for the administration declined to clarify the order Friday night, or say what it means for restaurants trying to decide if they can now be open past midnight.
The Miami-Dade County Attorney’s Office declined to comment, citing pending litigation. Miami-Dade is appealing the ruling to the Third District Court of Appeal, but the Butchko injunction remains in place for now, Tootsies lawyers said.
Gimenez imposed the curfew in July as a way to crack down on late-night socializing, both at bars and in private homes. Originally set at 10 p.m., it drew instant fire from restaurants who complained the measure ruined their nighttime business by forcing customers to get home early.
Daniel Aaronson, one of the Tootsies lawyers, said Butchko’s conclusion will invite other businesses to make the same challenges. “Obviously the writing is on the wall that it should not be enforced,” he said of the countywide curfew.
James Benjamin, another lawyer on the Tootsies case, said Tootsies stopped following the curfew after the DeSantis order and a manager was cited by county police for staying open. He said Butchko’s order means the end of overnight workers at Tootsies having to give up their earnings.
“All of the entertainers, the bus boys, the cooks, the bartenders, the valet people,” he said “There’s a boatload of people who are going to have their jobs now that didn’t have their jobs a couple of nights ago.”
The suit included a $500 county citation for a Tootsies manager, who apparently defied an order to close down after midnight on Wednesday, Oct. 7. The officer noted on the ticket that county lawyers were contacted. An email hours later to Aaronson from Janet Lewis, commander of the Miami-Dade Police Department’s legal bureau, said if Tootsies violates the curfew again “arrests will be made.”
Along with attacking the county’s COVID curfew, the lawsuit proffered something of a mission statement for Tootsies.
“Plaintiffs maintain that the human body is a thing of beauty which, when combined with music and rhythmic motion in the form of dance, conveys an important message of eroticism,” the Tootsies lawyers wrote. “Plaintiffs believe that providing this form of expressive communication to the public is a beneficial social activity which enhance individuals’ conscious ability [to consider] various issues involving sexual candor...”
The suit likened erotic dancing to speech, protected by the First Amendment and said the curfew denied patrons their right “to enjoy the exotic dance entertainment for which Tootsies is famous.”
This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 7:56 PM.