Stores Selling Rough Clothing on Seaside Heights Boardwalk Are a Legal Dilemma, Lawyer Says – Lavallette-Seaside Shorebeat

Tasteless items sold on the Seaside Heights boardwalk attract attention, July 2022. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

Residents who asked the Seaside Heights borough council in late summer to consider legal options for regulating the display of T-shirts and other clothing with vulgar words and images printed on them returned last week to see what the investigation found. We will be disappointed.

County Attorney Jean Cipriani, one of the most experienced municipal attorneys in the state who has represented the county for years, said the question has been raised about whether stores can display inappropriate clothing items, sometimes of an explicit sexual nature, on the boardwalk. Been trying for years. He said there are significant questions about whether a local regulatory ordinance would be deemed constitutional unless the state government expands the definition of existing laws that allow for more in-depth regulation of retail businesses.

“There has to be a way we can control this,” resident Trisha DeVoe told council members. “I agree with everything Seaside is doing to make it a family-friendly resort town, and it all goes against the new image you want to have. When my kids were little and we had a new beach house here, I hated going out on the boardwalk because of it all.

Cipriani said the clothing in question contained “highly suggestive” content, but retail businesses in New Jersey that only sell clothing with vulgar messages do not fall into the same category as businesses that can be banned from operating in certain locations, for example. as liquor stores or marijuana dispensaries.

Tasteless items sold on the Seaside Heights boardwalk attract attention, July 2022. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

Tasteless items sold on the Seaside Heights boardwalk attract attention, July 2022. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

The state allows some leeway for local regulation of what are known as “sexually oriented businesses,” but even as the town tries to find a nexus between that law and the local zoning code or business license ordinance, there are still significant constitutional questions over the ability to do so legally.

According to NJSA 2C:34-6, “Sexually oriented work” is defined as:

(1) A commercial entity that offers to sell, rent, or exhibit any of the following as one of its primary business purposes: Books, magazines, periodicals, or other printed materials, or photographs, films, motion pictures, videotapes, slides, or other visual representations that “address a particular sexual activity” ” or depicting or describing a “particular anatomical area”; or stationary or motion picture machines, projectors, or other image-producing devices that display images to one person per machine at any one time and where the images so displayed are characterized by depictions of “specific sexual activity” or “specific anatomical region”; or tools, devices or equipment designed for use in connection with a “specific sexual activity”; or

(2) A commercial establishment that regularly shows live performances characterized by the exposure of a “particular anatomical area” or a “particular sexual activity” or that regularly shows films, motion pictures, videotapes, slides, or other photographic representations depicting or describing “a specific sexual activity” or “a specific anatomical region”.

While businesses that meet this definition cannot be banned from operating citywide, they may be restricted from operating in certain areas, such as a recreational or tourist area. But the sale of T-shirts and apparel containing “naughty” phrases or acronyms is unlikely to meet state law’s strict definitions.

“While some T-shirts are extremely revealing, they do not fall within the legal definition,” Cipriani said. “I have looked at this issue before over the years; This is a constant problem. “Everyone thinks the same thing, but it is a very difficult issue legally,” he said.

“When friends come to visit, they want to go to the boardwalk, and I’m embarrassed to take them out there,” DeVoe said. DeVoe’s comments were echoed by fellow resident Lisa Franciosi, who had previously asked county officials to inspect the building. Existing legislation and case law on the subject.

Some residents also questioned whether shops selling tobacco products and vaping supplies were allowed on the boardwalk. The answer was largely the same: There is no state authority to ban businesses from an area because they sell legal tobacco products.

“This is a retail business, so if something is zoned for retail, which the boardwalk is, you can’t pick and choose,” Cipriani explained. “For anything that is considered retail without legal permission that says, ‘You can treat this business differently,’ there’s nothing you can do to allow ‘those’ types of stores to be on the boardwalk, but block ‘those’ types of stores.”

Tasteless items sold on the Seaside Heights boardwalk attract attention, July 2022. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

Tasteless items sold on the Seaside Heights boardwalk attract attention, July 2022. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

Some businesses are treated differently under the law.

“Liquor licenses and marijuana licenses are treated differently because there’s a specific law that gives towns the authority to say ‘you can handle this differently than others,'” Cipriani explained.

County Administrator Christopher Vaz said he would continue to work with legal counsel to determine whether there is any room for the county to include some regulations in its business licensing program, but that such efforts in the past have fallen short of meeting legal standards and even if they would be implemented one way or another, the overall problem It extends beyond the boardwalk shops.

“We have our job, but it’s not just our job,” Vaz said. “The kids come in shirts.”