330
Stevens, J., dissenting
yet there was nudity." Id., at 42. The same lawmaker then disfavorably compared the nude swimming incident to the activities that occur in "some of these clubs" that exist in Erie—clubs that would be covered by the law. Ibid.15
Though such comments could be consistent with an interest in a general prohibition of nudity, the complete absence of commentary on that broader interest, and the councilmembers' exclusive focus on adult entertainment, is evidence of the ordinance's aim. In my view, we need not strain to find consistency with more general purposes when the most natural reading of the record reflects a near obsessive preoccupation with a single target of the law.16
The text of Erie's ordinance is also significantly different from the law upheld in Barnes. In Barnes, the statute defined "nudity" as "the showing of the human male or female
15 Other members said their focus was on "bottle clubs," and the like, App. 43, and attempted to downplay the effect of the ordinance by acknowledging that "the girls can wear thongs or a G-string and little pas-ties that are smaller than a diamond." Ibid. Echoing that focus, another member stated that "[t]here still will be adult entertainment in this town, only it will be in a little different form." Id., at 47.
16 The plurality dismisses this evidence, declaring that it "will not strike down an otherwise constitutional statute on the basis of an alleged illicit motive." Ante, at 292 (citing United States v. O'Brien, 391 U. S. 367, 382- 383 (1968); Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc., 475 U. S. 41, 47-48 (1986)). First, it is worth pointing out that this doctrinaire formulation of O'Brien's cautionary statement is overbroad. See generally L. Tribe, American Constitutional Law § 12-5, pp. 819-820 (2d ed. 1988). Moreover, O'Brien itself said only that we would not strike down a law "on the assumption that a wrongful purpose or motive has caused the power to be exerted," 391 U. S., at 383 (emphasis added; internal quotation marks omitted), and that statement was due to our recognition that it is a "hazardous matter" to determine the actual intent of a body as large as Congress "on the basis of what fewer than a handful of Congressmen said about [a law]," id., at 384. Yet neither consideration is present here. We need not base our inquiry on an "assumption," nor must we infer the collective intent of a large body based on the statements of a few, for we have in the record the actual statements of all the city councilmembers who voted in favor of the ordinance.
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