09-4156 Annex Books, Inc., v. City of Indianapolis

Listen to this article

Constitutional Law
Adult book stores

Owners of adult bookstores were properly granted a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of an ordinance requiring them to close on Sundays, and between midnight and 10 a.m. on other days.

“Appellate review of an order granting or denying a motion for a preliminary injunction is deferential. Ashcroft v. ACLU, 542 U.S. 656, 664-65 (2004). The district judge did not abuse her discretion. The single article that Indianapolis offered suffers some of the shortcomings of the evidence we evaluated last year: it concerns a dispersal ordinance rather than an hours-of-operation limit, and the authors did not attempt to control for other potential causes of change in the number of arrests near adult establishments. The other new evidence, derived from experience with this ordinance in Indianapolis, appears to support the plaintiffs (though a statistical analysis might show that the support is illusory). Given the state of the record, the district court’s decision is sound. The parties should devote their energies to compiling information from which a reliable final decision may be made after a trial on the merits.”

Affirmed.

09-4156 Annex Books, Inc., v. City of Indianapolis

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Barker, J., Per Curiam.

Full text