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<br /> III S/so <br /> I" INTRODUCTION <br /> - <br /> III Many communities in Minnesota have raised concerns about the impact of <br /> ... sexually oriented businesses on their quality of life. It has been suggested that sexually <br /> oriented businesses serve as a magnet to draw prostitution and other crimes into a <br /> vulnerable neighborhood. Community groups have also voiced the concern that <br /> III sexually oriented businesses can have an adverse effect on property values and <br /> impede neighborhood revitalization. It has been suggested that spillover effects of the <br /> Id businesses can lead to sexual harassment of residents and scatter unwanted evidence <br /> of sexual liaisons in the paths of children and the yards of neighbors. <br /> III Although many communities have sought to regulate sexually oriented businesses, <br /> these efforts have often been controversial and equally often unsuccessful. Much <br /> III community sentiment against sexually oriented businesses is an outgrowth of hostility <br /> to sexually explicit forms of expression. Any successful strategy to combat sexually <br /> Ii oriented businesses must take into account the constitutional rights to free speech <br /> which limit available remedies. <br /> Only those pornographic mate'rials which are determined to be "obscene" have no <br /> constitutional protection. As explained later in more detail, only that pornography <br /> which, according to community standards and taken as a whole, "appeals to the <br /> I prurient interest" (as opposed to an interest in healthy sexuality), describes or depicts <br /> , sexual conduct in a "patently offensive way" and "lacks serious literary, artistic, political <br /> or scientific value," can be prohibited or prosecuted. Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, <br /> II 24 (1973). <br /> It Other pornography and the businesses which purvey it can only be regulated <br /> where a harm is demonstrated and the remedy is sufficiently tailored to prevent that <br /> harm without burdening First Amendment rights. In order to reduce or eliminate the <br /> I impacts of sexually oriented businesses, each community must find the balance <br /> between the dangers of pornography and the constitutional rights to free speech. Eacp <br /> I community must have evidence of harm. Each community must know the range of <br /> legal tools which can be used to combat the adverse impacts of pornography and <br /> I sexually oriented businesses. <br /> Ie -1- <br /> I <br /> --- <br />