Court sides with Miami-Dade over strip club in curfew case. Midnight closure stands

Douglas Hanks
·2 min read

An appeals court allowed Miami-Dade’s midnight curfew to stand on Wednesday, ruling the anti-COVID measure did not violate an order by Florida’s governor restricting local rules on businesses to combat the virus.

The Third District Court of Appeal ruled against the strip club Tootsies in saying Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez was within his authority to mandate businesses close at midnight. The court wrote “counties and municipalities are generally understood to have police powers that include the enactment of curfews.” The court said that authority wasn’t restricted by a Sept. 25 order by Gov. Ron DeSantis barring local governments from issuing COVID restrictions to close businesses

Tootsies sued last month, arguing the DeSantis decree prevented Miami-Dade from enforcing its curfew, which Gimenez started in July as a way to discourage late-night socializing. A circuit court judge sided with the Miami Gardens club, but the county got that ruling suspended when the Third DCA agreed to take up the case three weeks ago.

Even though the curfew has been in effect during the appeal, Miami used the lower court ruling to announce it wouldn’t enforce the midnight closures until the legal situation was resolved. There was no word from Mayor Francis Suarez, who announced the curfew policy last month, if the appeals ruling would change the city’s approach.

The curfew got extra attention Sunday when President Donald Trump scheduled a late-night rally at the county-owned airport in Opa-locka, a schedule set to violate the midnight curfew. Gimenez attended the event, which ended after Trump finished speaking at 12:49 a.m.

On Wednesday, Tootsies issued a statement suggesting the legal challenge will continue while urging DeSantis to step in with another order explicitly banning a curfew.

“We are confident that we will ultimately prevail on the legal issues as we go forward,” the statement said. “Hopefully the governor will now weigh in, so that hard-working people in Miami-Dade County can get back to work and businesses can operate when they choose and not when the county demands.”