HARTFORD, Conn. (Legal Newsline) - Connecticut's Supreme Court has ruled against the owner of an adult business who claimed the town that ostracized him exceeded its authority.
The Court decided Monday that Very Intimate Pleasures will not be allowed to open its store in the Town of Berlin, which received support from state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.
Blumenthal spoke at a rally wearing a fluorescent yellow "No VIP" sticker in Feb. 2007, then filed a brief in the trial court six weeks later. That trial court found for the town, and VIP appealed to the Supreme Court.
The per curiam opinion said the Justices saw no need to rehash the discussion that led to the trial court's decision.
"Our examination of the record on appeal, and the briefs and arguments of the parties, persuades us that
the judgment of the trial court should be affirmed," the opinion says.
"Because the trial court's memorandum of decision fully addresses the arguments raised in the present appeal, we adopt the trial court's concise and well-reasoned decision as a statement of the facts and the applicable law on these issues."
The trial judge ruled that the Town was allowed to enforce its own regulations regarding sexually oriented businesses. VIP had claimed only the town's zoning board could do so, though it had also rejected VIP's plan in Nov. 2006.
VIP already has three stores in the state. Blumenthal called Berlin a "battleground -- a test case for town authority statewide -- to regulate such businesses within their borders."
From Legal Newsline: Reach John O'Brien via e-mail at john@legalnewsline.com.