Every study conducted by local governments has established that sexually oriented businesses (SOB's) create negative secondary effects for surrounding neighborhoods and the community as a whole.

Because of the particular problems created by SOB's, the Supreme Court has approved time, place and manner regulations that are designed to protect communities and neighborhoods without suppressing speech activities that are presumed to be protected under the First Amendment.  Many counties, municipalities, and three states have chosen to enact “location” restrictions on where SOB's may locate within a community.  These restrictions do not limit the type of material sold or activities conducted in SOB's, but simply require that they not be located within certain distances from sensitive land uses, such as homes, churches, and schools.

One of the most common methods communities use to address the harmful secondary effects of SOB’s is land use regulation.  Secondary effects of SOB's include: diminished property values, litter, aesthetic impacts, noise, blight, lewdness, public indecency, illicit sexual activity, potential spread of disease, illicit drug use and trafficking, and person and property crimes.    Typically land use regulation takes the form of zoning ordinances.  The Supreme Court has held that communities may regulate the places where SOB's may locate, so long as SOB's are not completely zoned out of existence and enough land is left available where it is permissible for SOB's to locate so that SOB's may have “reasonable alternative avenues” for their expression that is protected by the First Amendment.

Florida, New Jersey, and Illinois have all passed statewide distance limitations.  Under these laws SOB's are prohibited from locating within a certain distance from certain types of land uses.   The main advantage of statewide distance limitation legislation is that it provides a solid foundation community protection, which localities can look to and rely upon as they make decisions about dealing with the secondary effects of SOB's at the local lever.  Statewide legislation also helps those local governments that do not have the resources to face the legal challenges that invariably accompany attempts to address the secondary effects of SOB's.  

•    The ¼ of a mile distance requirement for SOB's protects children.  Churches, schools, playgrounds, and homes should be protected to the fullest extent from the harmful secondary effects that SOB's bring to communities.  

•    Supreme Court cases support legal regulation of SOB's.  The Supreme Court has ruled definitively that time; place and manner of SOB operation can be regulated more stringently than other businesses.  Further, the Court has ruled that legislative bodies can rely on studies from other communities to justify those stringent regulations.  In other words, the state of Nebraska can rely on studies from other communities and states to support time restrictions on SOB's -- it does not need specific evidence of local harm in order to withstand constitutional scrutiny.

•    Location restrictions on SOB's, such as LB 443, are not directed at the “content” of the speech engaged in by SOB's, but rather at their negative secondary effects on neighborhoods.  SOB's can still engage in all the activities they formerly engaged in when they are located in permissible areas.  The “content” of their speech is not affected.  The restrictions are intended to combat the negative effects, not the “speech” itself.

•    LB 443’s distance requirements apply to future SOB's, not to existing businesses that operate lawfully.

Distance requirements for SOB's are fully constitutional and necessary to protect the quality of life in Nebraska’s neighborhoods and communities.  Uniform distance requirements protect communities from increased crime, especially sexual crime, noise and traffic associated with SOB operations.