Diva’s suit heads back to Maine court

BOSTON – A Bangor dance club’s free speech lawsuit is headed back to U.S. District Court in Bangor after a higher court overruled an earlier dismissal.

A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday ordered the lower court to consider whether the Bangor City Council intended to violate the Diva’s Gentlemen’s Club’s First Amendment right to free speech when it denied its application for a special amusement permit four years ago.

A date for a new hearing in Bangor has not been scheduled.

In the same opinion, the circuit court upheld dismissals of other parts of club owner Diane Cormier’s lawsuit, including claims against the mayor and City Council members as individuals. The court also upheld the lower court’s dismissal of Cormier’s claims that the council intentionally inflicted emotional distress and that the city code governing liquor and amusement licenses was unconstitutional.

Jeffrey Silverstein, the Bangor attorney who represents Cormier, said Thursday that the ruling was a partial victory.

“She gets to continue with her case to determine if the council intended to deprive her of her right to freedom of speech by limiting the operation of her dance club,” Silverstein said.

The attorney added that he did not expect the intent of the council would be difficult to prove.

“They didn’t want her operating any dance club in that location,” he said.

Efforts to reach Bangor City Solicitor Norman Heitmann were unsuccessful Thursday.

When the City Council denied the permit application in 2001, members cited concerns over possible nude dancing and public well-being. Three weeks later the board of appeals reversed the council’s decision and granted the permit.

Cormier sued the city seeking damages for the three weeks during which she was unable to open the club. In her suit, she claimed the club’s First Amendment rights to free speech were violated when the City Council rejected her application.

Under the current city statutes, dancers at Diva’s must wear bikinis – or the equivalent thereof – to avoid running afoul of city laws that limit commercial nude dancing to the city’s outskirts and to establishments that don’t serve alcohol. Diva’s serves alcohol.

If she wins on the merits of the case, according to Silverstein, Cormier would be entitled to recoup the losses her business suffered during the three weeks she was not able to operate.

“Although we do not express any opinion on the viability of [Cormier’s] claim, the potential damages, if any, are limited to the three-week period between the denial of the permit by the city council and the reversal of that denial by the Bangor Board of Appeals,” U.S. Circuit Judge Norman Stahl wrote in the 28-page ruling.

Bangor Daily News writer Judy Harrison contributed to this report.