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Las Vegas’ Quest to Clean Up X-Rated Litter Runs Afoul of…the First Amendment?

Sep. 9, 2012 12:48pm Madeleine Morgenstern

Las Vegas officials have passed a litter ordinance requiring handbillers to pick up after tourists who drop their materials. The American Civil Liberties Union says the new ordinance might violate free speech protections. (AP)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Some tourists try to dissuade them by directing icy glares their way. Others stare, zombie-like, into the Las Vegas Strip’s ubiquitous video screens and light displays in an effort to ignore the pushy handbill distributors.

But some tourists accept the pamphlets and glossy cards that advertise all-but-nude exotic dancers. Then, more often than not, they toss the material in the trash. Or if a trash can isn’t nearby, onto the sidewalk — creating an endless X-rated litter problem that Las Vegas officials are now trying to clean up.

A new ordinance requires handbillers to pick up litter within a 25-foot radius on the sidewalk. But there’s a hitch: The law might run afoul of the First Amendment.

“If someone takes some material, regardless of what it is, and then walks down the street and decides to drop it, that’s the person who is littering. That’s the person that is responsible, not the person who gave it to them originally,” said Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the Nevada American Civil Liberties Union.

Las Vegas police aren’t enforcing the ordinance yet. The ACLU has been meeting regularly with the exotic dancer businesses and police to talk about how that will happen, as well as encourage handbillers to help keep the Strip clean. The group has not yet challenged the law in court.

An unidentified man on a Las Vegas Strip sidewalk hands out cards advertising exotic dancers on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2012. (AP)

Meanwhile, handbillers — they’re also called “card-slappers” for the noise they make to get people’s attention — are as in-your-face as ever.

“They’re totally annoying,” John Marquez, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, said on a recent evening. “I pretty much take them and toss them in the first garbage can I see.”

One card he’d just grabbed near the Monte Carlo advertised a nearly nude woman named “Giesele” and a “$35 Special” but offered no other details on what the deal involved.

The legions of handbillers on the Strip on any given day include about 25 who work the Strip for Hillsboro Entertainment. They hand out some 50,000 handbills a week, according to the company’s owner, Vincent Bartello.

Sure, he could probably get the law overturned, he said. He doesn’t want to.

An unidentified man on a Las Vegas Strip sidewalk hands out cards advertising exotic dancers on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2012. (AP)

“We’re not actually littering. It’s the tourists, the people who come here. But if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be here. And I want to be able to make something better for them,” Bartello said.

Hillsboro Entertainment always has picked up after itself, he added. And his dancers absolutely are not prostitutes.

“We do not condone that. We send out dancers, entertainers, to entertain for customers that call,” he said.

Prostitution is legal in most of rural Nevada but illegal in metropolitan areas like Las Vegas and Reno. Still, the sex trade flourishes in Sin City.

Las Vegas tried directly to prohibit handbilling in 1997. The ACLU intervened in court and won. Subsequent court rulings have established that sidewalks along the Strip are public thoroughfares where the First Amendment protects freedom of speech, Lichtenstein said.

Lately, rather than keep going after the handbillers, Clark County has been focused on a clean-up-the-Strip effort that also will examine where to put trash cans and whether handbillers are impeding pedestrian flow in some areas.

“People are having to wade their way through some of that stuff,” Clark County Manager Don Burnette said.

To Lichtenstein, how police will enforce a law that requires handbillers to clean up their area no less than every 15 minutes is an obvious problem.

“I’m not sure the police even understand what they’re supposed to be enforcing,” he said. “Depending on what happens, we may be back in court again.”

Police Capt. Todd Fasulo said the law is straightforward and, as with any crime, enforcement will be a matter of police priorities.

At least one visitor was more concerned about the use of so much paper than the sultry images being thrust at her husband.

“It’s a waste of trees,” said John Marquez’s wife, Kaye. “There’s got to be a better way to do advertising.”

Or how about recycling? Last time they were in Vegas, they collected dozens of exotic dancer cards and stuffed them into birthday gift bags for friends back home.

“They thought it was hilarious,” she said.

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Comments (42)

as_mad_as_hell
Posted on September 10, 2012 at 4:01pm
This “literature” has been handed out since at least the mid-nineties. The handbillers won’t sue — they’re all illegals!

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YtownSports
Posted on September 10, 2012 at 12:01pm
1. Litter is litter. Does the city pick up litter?
2. Does anyone have to be licensed to hand stuff out on the streets?
3. Can the city control where stuff can be handed out?
4. Can the city show a little civic pride by working with these establishments to reduce to probability of litter?
5. Can tourists just say “no thanks?”

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Latter-Day-Soldier
Posted on September 10, 2012 at 11:32am
http://rense.com/general32/americ.htm
The above website states 45 declared goal for a communist takeover in America.

“You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As you read this, 39 years later, you should be shocked by the events that have played themselves out. I first ran across this list 3 years ago but was unable to attain a copy and it has bothered me ever since. Recently, Jeff Rense posted it on his site and I would like to thank him for doing so. http://www.rense.com”

#24 would fit this AP article: Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.

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schroeder123
Posted on September 10, 2012 at 11:31am
The Famous Harry Reids home town. You should be proud Harry. and your brother Jo Bu**head Biden, .

Both belong in a mental institution.

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ds7
Posted on September 10, 2012 at 10:55am
want to end this junk? have the las vegas police wear ICE hats and watch all the people handing out this garbage scatter.

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nouser
Posted on September 10, 2012 at 1:46am
There is no freedom to be seen or heard:

http://www.federalistblog.us/2008/10/freedom_of_speech_and_of_the_press/

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scottydu81
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 10:01pm
i love those little cards they hand out. when i was there, i made sure to collect no fewer than 52, so i could convert them to playing cards. i saw this one, the front of it was printed to look like a folded up $20 bill, and when you opened it it was an ad for a stripper! i laughed so hard, i kept it.

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castell
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 9:47pm
I’m tired of hearing about these silly environmentalists worried about the products promoting these women on little cards! Are you serious? During the housing boom I was employed with a mortgage company. It was the primary reason many trees and landscapes were being bulldozed over to make millions of houses. They didn’t worry about it when they were turning over the houses to sell at a profit and therefore contributing to more trees being bulldozed. Where were they back then. It was hilarious because our mortgage company decided to institute a recycling program with all the paper and portfolios being destroyed on a daily basis, not considering the fact that they were in the business of destroying trees indirectly through the housing market. Environmentalists don’t have even a brain stem to think.

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Delores at CH WV
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 9:07pm
Why visit Sin City? I cannot believe that tourists are shocked in Sin City or they wouldn’t visit it. As a believer, I would be caught dead or alive in Sin City?
Visiting Sin City doesn’t interest me at all. America is blessed with great beauty; clean hometowns that could use money to support their familes. Why support the people who charge you (really) for these hand bills that advertize Sin? Did you find happiness in Sin City? Would the mountain’s clean air, the rivers, the lakes, or the oceans give you the relaxation that you need for mental happiness?

As a tourist, America can offer more than Sin City? Check it out! God gave America much and you must see the wonder of it all.

As an American, we have a lot of communities to clean up; reach out and help clean up the streets and protect this great gift before it is gone. God chose us to be stewards of this land; we have alot of cleaning up to do. Don’t wait on the government to clean it up; they are just words on the wind.

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- ipockpa
  Posted on September 10, 2012 at 10:01am
  We owe Vegas nothing. They have a very high unemployment rate yet they still voted for Reid as their senator.
  
  Report this comment
noslave
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 8:56pm
if the story was to actually CLEAN UP LITTER? harry reids union thugs would be expecting those given the job to get paid prevailing wages($25-$35/hr??)thats why you’ll never see welfare people doing some form of work (picking up trash thrown on streets,subways,etc.)as part of their freebies??

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BryanB
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 6:25pm
@Mikev5

Where the Hell do you come up with Government Control, just hiring some people to sweep the streets ?

Thats what we actually have Government for. Maybe you like the idea of the Police arresting people for littering ? Or the City spending millions on constant lawsuits ?

Just hire some people to sweep the streets…………

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- Mikev5
  Posted on September 9, 2012 at 8:10pm
  I can’t believe you don’t get it think what making them pay a SMALL fee really means you are telling the Government to control something.
  
  Get it
  
  Report this comment
- Mikev5
  Posted on September 9, 2012 at 8:48pm
  Your whole attitude is big Government and you don’t even realize it … or maybe you do.
  
  Using a pic of a cop on your avatar doesn’t make you a conservative a true conservative you are probably a big Government hack hiding behind a mask I bet.
  
  Report this comment
- Gold Coin & Economic News
  Posted on September 9, 2012 at 8:55pm
  Sounds like a shovel ready job to me.
  
  Report this comment
bronco83
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 3:34pm
Good thing the Blaze covered this important issue lol !!!!!!

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Rational Man
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 3:19pm
They don’t call it “Sin City” for nothin……………….

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ArmedAndNotDangerous
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 3:12pm
The headline says “X-Rated”, yet the story says the literature does not show nude images. So what is the big deal? Is this a false headline?

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- Rational Man
  Posted on September 9, 2012 at 3:21pm
  Only morons argue over semantics…………
  
  Report this comment
- grayling646
  Posted on September 10, 2012 at 4:35am
  TheBlaze does that all the time. You’ll eventually get use to it.
  
  Report this comment
- Observer
  Posted on September 10, 2012 at 7:55am
  When your Mother wipes your behind do you also demand a picture?
  
  Report this comment
Impenitent
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 2:31pm
oh sure, pornographic litter… next they’ll need billboards advertizing the free clinics for the sexually transmitted diseases…

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olddog
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 2:16pm
I must look at it like this, Nevada put Harry Reid back in office so they must be used to trash, why are they complaining?

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18666929374
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 2:04pm
Those cards are all handed out by obvious illegal aliens just start arresting them for that.
When the mob ran Vegas they’d put a stop it!.

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- 4truth2all
  Posted on September 9, 2012 at 2:17pm
  Yeah , let’s put it into the hands of the good people at the mob.
  
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- Rational Man
  Posted on September 9, 2012 at 3:27pm
  Arrest illegal aliens in Vegas?……Thats funny!…..Thats a joke, right?
  
  If their union didn’t protect them, Dirty Harry would. Besides, ICE just puts them back on the street anyway.
  
  In the real world, your’s would be a good idea. But America, especially Nevada, is not in the real world anymore.
  
  Report this comment
- pitboss
  Posted on September 9, 2012 at 3:31pm
  I lived and worked in Las Vegas for almost 20 years, 4TRUTH2ALL. Like it or not, any Las Vegas native will tell you that Vegas was a much better town when the mob ran it. The mob wasn’t filled with choir boys, but if you think our government is full of “good people” then you’re living in a fantasy world. I’d like to see the pamphlets banned, because it’s just plain tacky. But as much as I dislike the ACLU, what they said is very true…the littering is the fault of the tourists who toss the pamphlets on the ground. After working in the casino industry, I can tell you for certain…when tourists come to Las Vegas, they tend to leave their responsibility at home. They think they can do whatever they want to do. Not so!!
  
  Report this comment
- RepubliCorp
  Posted on September 9, 2012 at 3:57pm
  PITBOSS when I was there a few years ago I got the feeling you can do anything you wanted within reason. Isn’t that why people go there? Dropping the little sex cards on the ground just makes for a shovel ready job……. Big deal, whats handed to you Vegas can stay in Vegas
  
  Report this comment
BryanB
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 1:42pm
How about just hiring people to cleaning up the Strip ?

Las Vegas could charge these “card-slappers” some sort of small Vender Fee, to help offset the cost.

I’ll bet it will be cheaper then going to court all the time……….

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- Mikev5
  Posted on September 9, 2012 at 3:16pm
  That’s Brilliant… BryanB so you are advocating more Government control?
  
  Next they will charge/Tax for everything under the sun they almost do now anyway Tax on top of a Tax that’s on top of another Tax do you know your electric bill has about three or more Tax’s in it State Tax county Tax then a City Tax probably even some Federal Tax then the Tax to transport it and a Tax to extract it and a number of other Tax’s we don’t even see.
  
  I don’t think even hardcore (conservatives) get the smaller Government Idea at all even (conservatives) want their free goodies not thinking ooops I just advocated for more Government.
  
  Report this comment
- Mikev5
  Posted on September 9, 2012 at 3:26pm
  Big Government is control also don’t you know so controlling this is big Government… Get it?
  
  Report this comment
Lowly Sinner
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 1:30pm
Allow me to analyze this. We have allowed a tool of the devil to become a “legal” business and we have obvious 1st amendment rights. The bills that end up on the street are likely from a group of persons who don’t like any confrontation. They simply take these fliers to be polite, then toss them a short while later. How can we fix this problem without doing an end-run around the 1st amendment? Hmm, how about enforcing the 7th commandment? (Thou shall not commit adultery). The ladies only entertain, but that leads to thoughts about relations with women other than the man’s wife, which by definition of my Lord and Saviour is adultery. If these ladies could only get undressed down to a bikini, the revenues would dwindle, and so would the handbills. Every day we fight Satan, and each time we overlook something we know is wrong, he wins the battle. ALL IT TAKES FOR EVIL TO TRIUMPH IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING.

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- 4truth2all
  Posted on September 9, 2012 at 2:20pm
  Lowly sinner …. you are not
  saint of royalty … you are
  Live it !
  
  Report this comment
- hidden_lion
  Posted on September 9, 2012 at 2:30pm
  or better yet, make them harlots wear a burka….How about keeping this country the land of the free. IF you are a christian, don’t go to “sin city”. Pretty easy choice, no?
  
  Report this comment
13th Imam
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 1:25pm
Take your trash bags to the offices of the ACLU. Dump them in their offices. Especially your rotting food scraps.

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- Wango
  Posted on September 9, 2012 at 5:11pm
  etter yet, pick up all the girlie flyers, wrap them in an American flag and burn them. There you go. Something for everybody to cheer and be outraged at. Glad we could come to this agreement.
  
  Report this comment
- 13th Imam
  Posted on September 9, 2012 at 5:36pm
  Your test tube must be proud of you.
  
  Report this comment
- Wango
  Posted on September 9, 2012 at 5:52pm
  13th iMAN . .Yeah, kinda made you look silly, didn’t I? Sorry. I promise it will happen again.
  
  Report this comment
- Git-R-Done
  Posted on September 9, 2012 at 6:33pm
  Wacko – Don’t get mad that civilized people actually want streets to be clean instead of littered.
  
  Report this comment
- 4truth2all
  Posted on September 10, 2012 at 6:12pm
  Yo Wango:
  
  You remind me of the frog the thought it was a hippo…
  
  Report this comment
watersRpeople
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 1:17pm
Only I know when the end will be. No one knows, not the Angels in heaven.

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SamIamTwo
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 1:14pm
Meh, I’d not take my kids to Vegas, nor would I go there…after all we have our Indian managed and run Casinos. LOL

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