Suit Targets Spring Break Laws

A lawsuit filed against Panama Beach City Oct. 30 alleges racial bias is behind new ordinances designed to curb problems during Spring Break over the last three years.

Photo: News Herald, Patti Blake/AP

Club LaVela in Panama City Beach, Fla.

Local officials dispute the charges. The city was recognized in 2012 by the Guinness Book of World Records for hosting the world’s largest bikini parade and, last year, three men were charged with alleged sexual assault on a crowded beach and a shooting occurred at a spring break house party.

Panama City Beach Mayor Gayle Oberst told the Panama City News Herald that she’s comfortable that the city council passed legal ordinances based on legal advice and not on racial bias.

“We were following the recommendations and the input of our citizens, and that’s what we did,” Oberst told the paper. “We thought we were doing things that were best for the community as a whole.”

Several Panama City Beach nightclub owners argue in the lawsuit that city officials deprived business owners of their property rights and unfairly targeted events frequented by black spring breakers.

The ordinances include restrictions on beach drinking during spring break, limiting the clubs’ hours of operation, requiring additional approvals to hold special events and regulations that target loitering in some areas of the beach and beach parking lots.

Attorney Luke Lirot, representing the business owners, said the ordinances are unfair to the businesses. He also said language used during public hearings about the ordinances clearly showed a racial bias.

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