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 officials did not take action against the woman, who has not been identified.

Street performers have “every right to be up on the boardwalk,” Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan told WBOC, which reported the town lost a 2012 lawsuit involving First Amendment rights of street performers.

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

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

“We are thrilled that musicians will no longer be silenced by Ocean City’s unconstitutional sound restriction and hopeful that the town will honor all performers’ free speech rights in the future,” Legal Director of the ACLU of Maryland Deborah Jeon said after the November 2013 settlement. The violinist was awarded $21,000 for tips he missed from the months he could not play; and $116,000 for legal fees and other costs associated with the case, according to the ACLU.

Ocean City lost a case in 2011 against a spray paint artist it was trying to prevent from painting and selling his art on the boardwalk; and in 2009, Ocean City rescinded a ban on amplifying devices (e.g., microphones), according to the ACLU, which said the town has an “unfortunate history of infringing on the rights of artists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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