Student Staff Update: Michael Aiello

Michael is a legal graduate assistant and student staff member for the Center for Global Justice, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law. 

A sexually oriented business, e.g. an adult movie theater, porn shop, etc., opens in your town. Yourself and other citizens are concerned about the undesirable secondary effects it will have on your community such as increasing crime rates, reduction in the town’s retail trail, lowering property values, and reducing the quality of neighborhoods and urban life. This leads you to ask, “what can be done?”

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a manual explaining how a local community can legally regulate a sexually oriented business? You’re in luck, there is! The Community Defense Counsel and Alliance Defending Freedom originally created the manual titled, Protecting Communities from Sexually Oriented Businesses.

Currently, the Center for Global Justice, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law is working with The National Center on SexualExploitation (NCOSE) to update this manual. NCOSE’s mission is to oppose sexual exploitation and defending human dignity. Their areas of focus include combating sex trafficking, abating the harmful effects of pornography, and regulating sexually oriented businesses.

The manual outlines multiple approaches on how to regulate a sexually oriented business. My team specifically is researching time, place, manner restrictions, a sub-category of Free Speech rights. All of which can be used by a local government and people to protect their community.