Strip club (Photo: John Disney/ ALM)

A tax on strip clubs set to begin next year is the target of a lawsuit alleging violation of constitutional rights.

To avoid what the suit characterizes as the state's increasingly powerful litigation trump card of sovereign immunity, the Georgia Association of Club Executives sued Attorney General Chris Carr and Department of Revenue Commissioner Lynnette Riley.

“Nude dancing is a form of free speech protected by the Georgia and United States Constitutions,” the club execs say in the lawsuit, filed in Fulton County Superior Court Friday.

The group is asking for a declaratory judgment that the tax is unconstitutional and for an injunction to stop the commissioner from collecting it and lodging prosecutions over refusals to pay it.

Legislators designed the tax to support the Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children Fund and created a commission to administer it.

“The intent of the legislation is admirable; the last-minute funding mechanism created by the Georgia Legislature is unconstitutional,” the club organization's executive director, Jill Chambers, said in a news release Monday.

The organization's legal representation includes J. Tom Morgan of Decatur, a former DeKalb County district attorney, and Gary Freed and Nicholas Corser of Freed Howard.

“In passing the tax, the Georgia Legislature stated without basis that adult entertainment establishments serve as an access point for the sexual exploitation of children. Legitimate licensed clubs and GA-ACE members are highly regulated and rigorously prevent patrons under age 21 from entering their businesses,” Chambers said. “Without justification, the unconstitutional tax lumps legitimate Georgia businesses, already subject to heavy government and self-regulation, in with sex offenders, 'places of prostitution, pimping, pandering by compulsion, solicitation of sodomy, masturbation for hire, [and] trafficking of persons for sexual servitude.' Such a characterization is offensive and casts an unfounded stigma on the legitimate adult entertainment industry.”

The attorney general's communications director said the office cannot comment on pending litigation.