SAN DIEGO, CA – In a case that reaches back to 1997, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Irma Gonzalez ruled last Friday that the city of San Diego’s effort to close one of the city’s adult bookstores is unconstitutional, according to a report in the San Diego Union Tribune. In 1997, George Isbell, owner of the adult bookstore G&B Emporium, filed a lawsuit against the city in reaction to enforcement of an ordinance that prohibited adult entertainment businesses from operating within 1,000 feet of any church, public park, school, residential area, or social-welfare institution.

The G&B Emporium, located on Main Street in San Diego’s Barrio Logan neighborhood, is approximately 900 feet away from the nearest residence and on the other side of Interstate 5, according to Isbell’s attorney, Roger Diamond.

A previous court ruling Isbell granted Isbell a temporary injunction against enforcement of the ordinance by the city, allowing his store to stay in business pending adjudication of the lawsuit.

In her ruling Friday, Judge Gonzalez ruled that in order for the city to enforce the ordinance, the city had to establish that other businesses were meeting the area’s demand for adult materials, and the city failed to establish that fact, according to Diamond.

With Judge Gonzalez’s ruling in hand, Diamond told the Union Tribune he will now seek to recover more than $500,000 in legal fees from the city to cover the expenses created by nine years of litigation.

The San Diego City Attorney’s office has not yet commented on the ruling.