City News & Novelty, Inc. v. Waukesha, 531 U.S. 278, 8 (2001)

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Cite as: 531 U. S. 278 (2001)

Opinion of the Court

from clear, however, whether City News actually suffers that disability.2 And as our prior discussion suggests, supra, at 283, a live controversy is not maintained by speculation that City News might be temporarily disabled from reentering a business that City News has left and currently asserts no plan to reenter. See Spencer v. Kemna, 523 U. S. 1, 15-16 (1998).

City News's contention that it remains a qualified complainant also fails for a separate reason. Full briefing and argument have revealed that the question City News tendered, and which we took up for review, is not now and never was accurately reflective of City News's grievance. Unlike the initial license applicant whose expression cannot begin prepermission (the situation of the complainant in Freedman), City News was already licensed to conduct an adult business and sought to fend off a stop order. Swift judicial review is the remedy needed by those held back from speaking. We do not doubt that an ongoing adult enterprise facing loss of its license to do business may allege First Amendment injuries. Such an establishment's typical concern, however, is not the speed of court proceedings, but the avail-2 City News points to Waukesha's rule that to receive an adult entertainment license, an applicant "shall not have been found to have previously violated [the adult business ordinance] within 5 years immediately preceding the date of the application." Waukesha Municipal Code § 8.195(4)(a)(2) (1995), reprinted in App. to Pet. for Cert. 103. It was in 1995, however, that Waukesha last found City News to have violated the City ordinance. As City News recognizes, the disabilities from these violations expired in 2000. Reply Brief 2. City News asserts that it remains vulnerable to the bar because, in violation of the ordinance, it operated without a license into the year 2000. But this argument runs up against the facts that, since 1995, City News has not "been found" by Waukesha's Common Council to have violated the ordinance, and that the council expressly permitted City News to continue in business during the pendency of state-court proceedings. See Petitioner's Lodging, Tab No. 3. If City News seeks a license in the future, and if Waukesha attempts to invoke its five-year bar, nothing in the prior proceedings or in our disposition today will disable City News from contesting the bar's application.

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