Justia New Mexico Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

On one autumn weekend in 2008, an Albuquerque art-house movie theater hosted a film festival. The festival was titled "Pornotopia," and it featured at least one erotic or pornographic film. Other than Pornotopia, the theater showed non-pornographic films. Despite the festival's positive impact on the neighborhood and the generally non-adult nature of the host theater, the theater was convicted of a zoning violation for operating an "Adult Amusement Establishment" in an improper zone. The theater argued on appeal to the Supreme Court that its state and federal rights to free speech were violated. Upon review, the Supreme Court concluded that "adult amusement establishment" under the Albuquerque Code of Ordinances applied only to traditional adult businesses, and not the theater which only played one weekend of erotic films during the film festival. Therefore, the Court did not reach the constitutional questions raised by the theater. View "New Mexico v. Pangaea Cinema LLC" on Justia Law