美国国家公共电台 NPR New Yorkers Can Now Put On Dancing Shoes And Legally Get 'Footloose' In Public Spaces

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

It's a moment to dance in New York. The New York City Council has voted to repeal 1 a ban on dancing in bars and restaurants that's been on the books for 91 years. The so-called Cabaret Law was passed during Prohibition 2 - a way to crack down on speakeasies. Racially mixed jazz clubs were also targets, but the ban's been enforced irregularly over the last nine decades. However, it's never quite gone away. You could just ask Andrew Muchmore. He's a lawyer and owns Muchmore's. It's a bar and music venue 3 in Brooklyn. It was cited in 2013 for unlawful swaying. Mr. Muchmore joins us from New York.

Thanks very much for being with us.

ANDREW MUCHMORE: Thank you, Scott.

SIMON: Are you swaying now?

MUCHMORE: Just a little bit, within legal bounds.

SIMON: So what happened?

MUCHMORE: We had a noise complaint from a neighbor from people speaking to loudly on the sidewalk. And when the police came out, they issued two summons, one for violation 4 of the New York City noise code and one for violation the Cabaret Law, which in the context of bars and restaurants, prohibits musical entertainment, singing, dancing or other forms of amusement without a license 5. And that license is very difficult to obtain and was only possessed 6 by about a hundred bars and restaurants out of more than 25,000 in New York.

SIMON: All the years I've spent in and out of one establishment or another in New York, I never until this moment feared that I could run into - run afoul of the law in something like this. It's been very selectively enforced, hasn't it?

MUCHMORE: The enforcement has been uneven 7 and arbitrary. It is a law that is fairly universally ignored, which allows it to be enforced often against groups that are more vulnerable and less politically popular. For instance, if someone wants to open up a hip-hop club, they're likely to run into more difficulties with their local community board than if they're opening up a rock club. In the same time, it's gone through periods of strict enforcement. In the '40s, '50s, '60s, you needed a cabaret card to be able to perform. And a lot of really famous musicians, like Chet Baker 8 and Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk 9, lost their cabaret cards due to either narcotics 10 violations 11 or any other character issues and were unable to play music in the city of New York.

SIMON: So you would - you didn't just take this swaying down, did you?

MUCHMORE: (Laughter) No, I didn't. The swaying cuts to the unconstitutional vagueness and overbreadth of the law. When the police came, we were hosting a rock concert. And in fact, we were forced to censor 12 the genres 13 of music we could play because the law. If we were to host DJs or electronic dance music or hip-hop or merengue or salsa or anything like that, people would dance. And we would run afoul of the law. So we had to play genres that would not lead to dancing. But then that begs the question, what is dancing?

SIMON: Yeah.

MUCHMORE: Swaying, toe tapping, head nodding - will any of that trigger the law? And it just was not clearly defined, leaving it open to abuse.

SIMON: So you're a lawyer. They really just went to court against the wrong guy, didn't they?

MUCHMORE: Well, it was more the principle of it. I got a ticket, and I intended to challenge it. And when I showed up the court, they had no record of the ticket. It had apparently 14 been thrown out or disposed of, but it got me thinking about what a absurd and unconstitutional law this was with the First Amendment 15 and 14th Amendment issues that it posed. And I decided 16 that I should file a lawsuit 17 to challenge its constitutionality in federal court.

SIMON: And that prevailed.

MUCHMORE: The likelihood that the law was going to get struck down was one of the factors that contributed to the council's decision to repeal it. But there were also many groups that came together to push for the repeal.

SIMON: Mr. Muchmore, I'm told you also have a laundromat in your bar.

MUCHMORE: I do have a small laundromat in the back. It's a New Orleans thing. I grew up in New Orleans, and there a lot of the bars have laundries so that while you're doing your laundry, you can have a beer or a coffee and get to know your neighbors.

SIMON: How are you going to celebrate?

MUCHMORE: We're going to throw a dance party this Saturday night, I believe - our first ever.

SIMON: Well, Mr. Muchmore, congratulations. And good swaying to you, OK?

MUCHMORE: Thank you very much.

SIMON: Andrew Muchmore, esquire and owner of Muchmore's in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

(SOUNDBITE OF KENNY LOGGINS SONG, "FOOTLOOSE")