The Politics of Strip Clubs: Are Lap Dances Free Speech?

[DWPerry]

if lap dancing is "free speech" why must one pay for them?

[DWPerry]

Not free speech, but the right to privacy. The right to privacy is a right implied in the constitution, just like judicial review is an implied and inherint power for the courts.

The Constitution expressly states: "The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases ... arising under this Constitution." The plain meaning of this clause is that the judiciary has the power to determine whether legislation violates the Constitution, because any charge that an act of Congress violates the Constitution is obviously a case "arising under this Constitution." Thus, even though the Constitution does not use the term "judicial review," it grants the power using equivalently strong words explicitly (not implicitly, as is often asserted). I would challenge anyone to find an equally explicit statement in the Constitution that guarantees a right that is equivalent to the so-called "right to privacy."

I believe that most people "find" the "right to privacy" in the 14th Amendment, as in the Roe vs Wade decision. I could possibly see using the 9th Amendment to support lap dances, easier than the 14th.

[DWPerry]

I believe that most people "find" the "right to privacy" in the 14th Amendment, as in the Roe vs Wade decision. I could possibly see using the 9th Amendment to support lap dances, easier than the 14th.

Don't you mean the 4th Amendment? The 14th doesn't seem to have much to do with privacy.

From the Roe V Wade decision
"MR. JUSTICE BLACKMUN delivered the opinion of the Court.
MR. JUSTICE REHNQUIST, dissenting.
MR. JUSTICE STEWART, concurring.....
3. State criminal abortion laws, like those involved here, that except from criminality only a life-saving procedure on the mother's behalf without regard to the stage of her pregnancy and other interests involved violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects against state action the right to privacy,"

[DWPerry]

if lap dancing is "free speech" why must one pay for them?

I was wondering that myself.

You have to pay for a newspaper too.

Not ALL newspapers; also, I was being somewhat sarcastic.