Pole Dancing in Ocean City: First Amendment Right?

A pole dancer who put on a show along the Ocean City boardwalk over the weekend has town officials seeking legal counsel.

On Saturday, the Ocean City Police Department received dozens of complaints after a bikini-clad woman with a portable pole performed on the “family friendly” boardwalk off N. 2nd Street, WJZ reported.

Town authorities say their hands are tied and did not take action against the unidentified woman.

Street performers have “every right to be up on the boardwalk,” Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan told WBOC. The Delmarva news station reports the town is still smarting from a 2012 lawsuit it lost involving First Amendment rights of street performers.

The suit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) after Ocean City police prevented an Owings Mills violinist from playing on the boardwalk, citing a noise ordinance that banned sounds heard from 30 feet away, according to USA Today.

The judge placed an injunction on the ordinance, USA Today reported.

“We are ... hopeful that the town will honor all performers’ free speech rights in the future,” ACLU of Maryland’s Deborah Jeon said after the November 2013 settlement. The violinist was awarded $21,000 for missed income and $116,000 for legal fees and other costs, according to the ACLU.

Ocean City was also unsuccessful in a First Amendment case involving a spray paint artist in 2011; and in 2009, it rescinded a ban on amplifying devices (e.g., microphones), according to the ACLU, which said the town has an “unfortunate history of infringing on the rights of artists and performers...”

After last weekend’s risqué street show, town officials say they are looking into the ordinances to make sure any laws aren’t being broken, according to WBAL.

As far as pole dancing, if someone doesn’t step in, “...then every resort on the East Coast is going to have pole dancers,” the owner of the Ocean Gallery art shop told The Baltimore Sun. The owner, whose store faced the area where the pole dancer had set up her performance, told The Sun he called police immediately.

Photo Credit: Fenwick Islander/YouTube screenshot. A woman in a bikini performed a pole dance on Saturday, Aug. 9.

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