Exxxotica Lawsuit Over Dallas Convention Ban Is Revived By Court (AVN)

Read the full article by Michael French at AVN.com

Dismissed Last Year on a Technicality, Adult Convention’s Lawsuit Wins Appeal

Two years ago, the owners of the Exxxotica Expo sued the city of Dallas, Texas, after the city council there voted to ban the adult entertainment show from the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center because of the supposed “deleterious effects of pornography on society,” according to a report by The Dallas Observer.

The Expo’s owners sued on First Amendment grounds, saying that because the convention center is a public facility, it should not be allowed to discriminate against any potential client capable of paying the rent. But last year, the Observer reported, a judge threw out the suit on a technicality.

Why not? Because the business entity that signed the rental agreement with Dallas, that allowed the Exxxotica Expo to hold a show there, was not Three Expo, but a company called Exxxotica Dallas—a subsidiary of Three Expo.

But on Wednesday, two judges on a three-judge appeals court panel overturned Fitzwater’s reasoning as, essentially, ridiculous, saying that the city council’s intention was not simply to ban porn conventions from just one company, but from any company, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Federal Judge Sidney Fitzwater never ruled on the First Amendment issues, simply deciding that Three Expo Events, the company that sued Dallas over the ban, did not have the standing to file the lawsuit.