In the 1989 case FW/PBS, INC., DBA PARIS ADULT BOOKSTORE II, et al. v. CITY OF DALLAS et al., the U.S Supreme Court ruled on a dispute concerning First Amendment rights and city licensing regulations for sexually oriented businesses. The City of Dallas had enacted an ordinance requiring these types of establishments to obtain a license before operating within city limits. Several businesses challenged this regulation arguing that it violated their First Amendment right to freedom of speech by imposing prior restraint without judicial review procedures in place as safeguards against government censorship or arbitrary denial of licenses. The Supreme Court held that while cities have legitimate interests in regulating adult entertainment venues due to secondary effects such as crime and neighborhood decline, they must also provide prompt judicial review if a license is denied so as not infringe upon free speech rights under the First Amendment. Therefore, although Dallas' licensing scheme was constitutional overall because it served significant governmental interests unrelated to suppression of expression (i.e., combating negative secondary effects), its lack of procedural safeguards rendered it unconstitutional.

In the dissenting opinion for FW/PBS, INC., DBA PARIS ADULT BOOKSTORE II, et al. v. CITY OF DALLAS et al., Justice White argued that the majority's decision to strike down Dallas' licensing scheme was incorrect and inconsistent with previous rulings of the Court. He contended that there is no constitutional right to operate a sexually oriented business without obtaining a license first and emphasized that such businesses have harmful secondary effects on communities which justify regulation by local authorities. Furthermore, he disagreed with the majority's view that procedural safeguards were necessary before issuing licenses for these types of businesses because they are not being denied their First Amendment rights; rather they are simply required to comply with reasonable regulations designed to mitigate negative community impacts.