Brix

Ole A. Brix and Larrie Mead appeal from an order denying a preliminary injunction against enforcement of an ordinance of respondent City of San Rafael, regulating massage parlors.

The City Council of San Rafael enacted Ordinance No. 1261, which regulates the operation of massage establishments and massage services. The ordinance makes it unlawful for any individual to operate a massage establishment or engage in the practice of massage without a license issued by the city (§ 8.34.030). It is provided that no massage establishment be open between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 7 a.m. (§ 8.34.080(q)); that only massage technicians who have graduated from a recognized school of massage be permitted to administer massages (§ 8.34.060(c)); and that no massage technician or employee may expose “his or her genitals, buttocks, or in the case of a female, her breast(s),” nor, in the course of administering a massage, make intentional contact with “the genitals or anus of any other person.” (§ 8.34.080(k).)

Appellants assert as follows: They would be irreparably injured by the enforcement of the ordinance because approximately 30 percent of their business occurs after 10:30 p.m.; by…