A Victory for Decency

La Habra is a town in Orange County. It's also Spanish for "the view."

A judge has decided that patrons of a strip club in La Habra should have a bit less la habra of the girls who dance there -- and that's good news for people everywhere who are sick of the sleaze the porn-and-stripper business brings with it.

I've stripped down the LATimes report to the bare essentials:

In a decision that La Habra officials believe could encourage other cities, a federal appeals court Wednesday upheld a city ordinance that effectively bans lap dancing by requiring exotic performers to stay two feet from their customers.

Deborah Fox, who represented the city in its fight with the owner of Taboo Gentleman's Club, called the 3-0 ruling "really huge," since "lap dancing is the financial linchpin of the adult industry and this is the end of the argument about its prohibition." ...

"The 2-foot rule," Judge Richard Tallman wrote, "merely requires that dancers give their performances from a slight distance; it does not prohibit them from giving their performances altogether. The rule limits the dancers' freedom to convey their erotic message but does not prohibit them from performing erotic one-on-one dances for patrons." ...

Fox said she hoped the ruling would encourage other cities to consider ordinances limiting lap dancing, many of which have been challenged.