A 19-year-old nude dancer alleges that a new Florida law raising the age limit on who is employed by adult entertainment businesses infringes on her constitutional rights. Serenity Michelle Bushey filed a federal lawsuit Monday in the U.S.
District Court for the Northern District of Florida, stating that the law violates her First Amendment right to free speech. Two adult entertainment businesses, including the corporation that owns the club where Bushey worked, are also plaintiffs in the suit. The law, , is aimed to prevent human trafficking and includes a ban on employing anyone under the age of 21 at adult entertainment businesses.
Gov. signed the bill in May but it did not go into effect until Monday. According to the suit, the lack of any type of "grandfather clause" in the bill has forced these businesses to terminate anyone under the age of 21 immediately.
As a result, Bushey has lost her job as a nude performer at Café Risque. "In addition to Bushey, at least eight other adult performers who were over the age of eighteen, but under the age of twenty-one, are no longer able to perform at Café Risque because of HB 7063," the suit said. The suit alleges that the law violates the right to free speech by restricting Bushey from being able to perform her art and make a living, adding that the state did not consider alternatives that would advance state interest without placing a burden on the First Amendment rights.
"Plaintiffs maintain that the human body is a thing of.