Steve Six (D)
TOPEKA, Kan. (Legal Newsline) - Kansas Attorney General Steve Six on Thursday announced his office will not seek an appeal to a recent court decision in the Lion's Den lawsuit against the state.
In late June, a U.S. District Court blocked enforcement of a state law that bans sexually- orientated businesses from advertising along state highways.
The agreement reached by the attorney general's office stops Lion's Den from collecting any attorney's fees and permanently prohibits the state from enforcing the current sexually orientated law, Six said.
"Given the state's budget challenges, it would be fiscally irresponsible to continue litigation that has very little chance of success," the Democrat said.
Six pointed out that similar laws have already been challenged in court and struck down in Georgia, South Carolina and Missouri.
The Kansas law had been modeled after Missouri's law, after a federal district court ruled the law to be constitutional. However, an 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the ruling, calling the law unconstitutional.
The law, enacted in 2006, was scheduled to take into effect July 1. Lion's Den sued the state, claiming the law to be a violation of the First Amendment.