County seeks plan to quash Strip smut

County officials and attorneys met Tuesday but failed to produce a strategy to respond to a federal appeals court's order of a preliminary injunction against an ordinance that bans distribution of handbills on the Las Vegas Strip.

"They are discussing their options," Clark County spokesman Tom Warden said. "We will expect a decision within a week to 10 days."

County Commissioner Lorraine Hunt, sponsor of the controversial ordinance, says she is confident the county will win in the long run, despite the setback by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

She said Tuesday that the appellate court's ruling was made by only two of the 9th Circuit Court's 27 judges.

"I'm confident if we go before the full panel of 27 judges we will prevail," she said. "We didn't ban free speech. There are plenty of opportunities for free speech."

Officials are looking at options that include appealing the decision handed down Friday by the appeals court, living with the injunction while continuing with a lawsuit or rewriting the ordinance passed in January 1997.

U.S. District Court Judge Lloyd George, who presides over the lawsuit that spawned the injunction order by the higher court, says he will not issue the preliminary injunction until he has the written mandate in his hands.

"It's merely a technicality," George said.

When he receives the mandate, George says he probably will hold a brief hearing to receive arguments on both sides of the issue.

The case that resulted in the order for an injunction involves a lawsuit filed by Richard Soranno and Hillsboro Enterprises against Clark County shortly after the ordinance was passed in January 1997.

Soranno and Hillsboro hire canvassers who distribute printed material advertising business establishments that feature nude dancing.

Before a trial could get under way, Soranno and Hillsboro asked George for an injunction that would prohibit the county from enforcing its law until the lawsuit was resolved.

George denied the motion and Soranno, Hillsboro and the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada -- acting as intervenor -- appealed that decision to the appellate court in San Francisco.

Since the appeal, the court case has been in limbo.

George said he will set a trial date when it is requested by the plaintiffs.

County officials claim the intent of the ordinance has nothing to do with so-called "smut peddlers" but rather is a legitimate effort to "improve the pedestrian environment, maintain accessible sidewalks, prevent harassment of pedestrians and to reduce litter."

But opponents, including ACLU Nevada executive director Gary Peck, say it is aimed at those who distribute sexually oriented pamphlets along the Strip.

"(The county) will have an extremely difficult time prevailing on an argument that the law on its face is constitutional," Peck said.

ACLU cooperating attorney Allen Lichtenstein said there are ways to word the ordinance that would not infringe upon First Amendment rights and that he would be willing to help the county write it.

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