CopyCited 4 times | Published | Supreme Court of Georgia | Mar 8, 2022 | 313 Ga. 364
...nconstitutionally
vague. In Case No. S21X0900, GACE cross-appeals, contending that
the trial court erred in granting partial summary judgment in
Riley’s favor on the remaining claims of GACE’s petition, arguing,
among other things, that OCGA §
15-21-209, by imposing an annual
assessment on adult entertainment establishments, violates
constitutional due process and free speech protections....
Published | Supreme Court of Georgia | Oct 31, 2024
...held it. So do we.
The Georgia Association of Club Executives (“GACE”), a self-
described “organization of adult entertainment clubs in Georgia,”
challenges the constitutionality of a “state operating assessment”
imposed by OCGA §
15-21-209 (the “Assessment” or “Tax”) on “adult
entertainment establishments” as defined by OCGA §
15-21-201 (1)
(A). The General Assembly passed the Assessment to create and
fund the Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children Fund, see
OCGA §
15-21-209 (c), with the purpose of helping child victims of
sexual exploitation, finding that adult entertainment
establishments were a “point of access” by which individuals seeking
to sexually exploit children use such establishments as a means of
“locating children” to sexually exploit....
...subject to the “state operating assessment” imposed by OCGA § 15-
21-209 (a) because they are “adult entertainment establishments”
4
as defined by OCGA §
15-21-201 (1) (A).1
(a) The Assessment
OCGA §
15-21-209 (a)2 says:
By April 30 of each calendar year, each adult
entertainment establishment shall pay the commissioner
of revenue a state operation assessment equal to 1
percent of the previous calendar year’s gross revenue or
$5,000.00....
...See Sons of
Confederate Veterans v. Henry County Bd.of Commrs.,
315 Ga. 39, 66 (2) (d) (ii)
n.24 (880 SE2d 168) (2022). The viability of that doctrine has not been raised
by the parties, and we decline to reconsider sua sponte the doctrine in this case.
2 OCGA §
15-21-209 was passed in 2015....
...and prostitution.” The court concluded that intermediate scrutiny
applied to its analysis of the Assessment, which “has only an
incidental impact on protected expression” and is targeted at
negative secondary effects of that protected expression. The court
held that OCGA §
15-21-209 (a) and the Assessment passed
intermediate scrutiny because “[t]hey further an important
governmental interest in reducing sex trafficking and the
exploitation of minors; their express purpose is unrelated to the
suppression of spe...
...associated with adult
19
entertainment establishments that allow the sale, possession, or
consumption of alcohol” by funding a “protective response” through
assessments imposed on the industry responsible for those
secondary effects. Id.; see also OCGA §
15-21-209 (c)....
...’ prong of
the O’Brien test.”).
The Assessment requires adult entertainment establishments
that serve alcohol and operate for a profit to pay the greater of 1
percent of the previous year’s gross revenue or $5,000. See OCGA §
15-21-209 (a)....
