FLINT, MI -- A Flint strip club is suing the U.S. Small Business Administration and federal administrators, calling regulations in the federal Paycheck Protection Program discriminatory and in violation of workers amendment rights.
A lawsuit was filed Wednesday, April 8, by Jason Mohney, owner of more than two dozen strip clubs across the country, on behalf of his Flint club, Little Darlings. The lawsuit is against the U.S. Small Business Administration, SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The lawsuit alleges regulations in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act discriminate against businesses considered to provide products or services of a “prurient sexual nature.” SBA lenders can distribute $349 billion in forgivable loans through the PPP to businesses with 500 or fewer employees as part of the CARES Act, a $2.2 trillion economic rescue package signed into law March 28.
Because the program is operated on a first come, first serve basis, the complaint seeks a temporary restraining order to “prevent irreparable injury to its workers, its business, the entertainers who preform on its premises, and all their constitutional rights.”
Little Darlings on Dort Highway closed March 24 when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay at home order took effect. Without the emergency loan, the club might not be able to reopen, the lawsuit states.
After the motion for a temporary restraining order, attorney for the plaintiff Bradley Shafer said they received information that banks could, at least initially, approve loans through the program to businesses that may be included in the regulations. However, there is a concern that businesses may be granted loans but the regulation would prevent the forgiveness of loans to businesses included in the “prurient sexual nature” regulation, he said.
“It’s a very chaotic situation because different people are getting different information,” Shafer said.
Some businesses across the nation are being denied because of regulations cited in the suit, some applications have been refused and some are given a placeholder number, Shafer said. Within coming days, they plan to submit an amended complaint with additional plaintiffs. The court indicated Monday, April 13, it wants the issue fully adjudicated before the forgiveness aspect of the loans would apply, he said.
Last act at Little Darlings strip club in Flint is a Sunday church service
Shafer said he could not discuss further particulars about the case as they are in the midst of litigation.
The lawsuit claims the PPP “improperly and unconstitutionally limits benefits to businesses and workers unquestionably engaged in First Amendment protected expression.”
The lawsuit also alleges limitations to the program violate the rights of Little Darlings workers preforming on the premises under the occupational liberty component of the Fifth Amendment.
The suit claims this violation occurs when the regulation treats establishments, and establishment workers presenting “certain forms of performance dance entertainment,” such as Little Darlings, differently than it treats “other forms of entertainment or no entertainment, for no compelling, important, or rational reason.”
Types of businesses considered ineligible include “live performances of a prurient sexual nature” or “derive directly or indirectly de minimis gross revenue through the sale of products or services, or the presentation of any depiction or display, of a prurient sexual nature.”
The SBA does not comment on ongoing litigation, a spokesperson with the SBA told MLive/The Flint Journal.
The lawsuit sctes the following SBA Standard Operating Procedure for loan programs:
“SBA has determined that financing lawful activities of a prurient sexual nature is not in the public interest,” the procedure reads in regard to businesses providing sexual material. “The lender must consider whether the nature and extent of the sexual component causes the business activity to be prurient.”
The sign in front of Little Darlings still flashes messages despite the establishment’s temporary closure.
One reads: “We will remain ‘clothed’ until it is safe to open our robes. Open May 1, 2020 (we hope).”
Read more:
A coronavirus specimen’s trip from a patient’s nostril through a Michigan testing lab
Michigan senator calls for state employee layoffs to balance budget
Group trying to put LGBT initiative on Michigan ballots turns to electronic signatures
New Michigan coronavirus cases under 1,000 again, but deaths are back up
Business - Latest - Google News
April 14, 2020 at 07:48AM
https://ift.tt/2VovrqE
Flint strip club lawsuit claims coronavirus loans discriminate against businesses of a ‘sexual nature’ - MLive.com
Business - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/2Rx7A4Y
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Flint strip club lawsuit claims coronavirus loans discriminate against businesses of a ‘sexual nature’ - MLive.com"
Post a Comment