Licensed massage therapists in Billings, Montana, are suing the city in federal court over its law forcing therapists to submit to unannounced, warrantless searches in order to stay in business. Billings recently enacted an intrusive local ordinance targeting massage therapists as part of a crackdown on prostitution. There are at least a dozen “illicit sex and human-trafficking businesses disguised as massage therapy businesses” in Billings and “about 9,000 of these nationwide,” KTVQ reported a year ago while the ordinance was under consideration. Sacramento, California-based Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a national nonprofit public interest law firm that’s representing the massage therapists, says the therapists resent being lumped in with prostitution-related businesses and being deprived of their Fourth Amendment right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures. “Owners of legitimate businesses should not have to surrender their constitutional rights in order to continue serving customers. No one should be forced to …
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