Press Conference: Omaha Speakeasy Forced to Rename Itself “Censored Shop”

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]All we ask is whoever is speaking, please spell and say your first and last name.

[00:00:04]>> Of course.

[00:00:09]>> All right. Good morning everyone. Thank you for coming. My name is Robert McNamera. That's Mis and Mary C. Capital N as in Nancy A. M as in Mary A. I'm the deputy director of litigation at the Institute for Justice, which is a nationwide public interest civil liberties law firm dedicated to fighting overreaching government. We protect private property, economic liberty, and the issue that brings us here today, free speech. Uh where once again we see, as you see all too often in this country, occupational licensing boards using their power not to protect the public health and safety, but to act as modern-day sensors trying to assert control over how ordinary entrepreneurs are allowed to use ordinary words. Uh, and that is why we've jo we've come here today to join an important free speech lawsuit originally brought by the First Amendment Clinic at the Nebraska College of Law. We're pleased to be joined by the clinic's director, Daniel Gutman, and uh, a recently graduated 3L who found this case and brought in, Ben Sovis. Uh we're pleased to form's first partnership with the law student clinic uh in order to vindicate the first amendment rights of entrepreneurs here in Omaha and nationwide. You're going to hear from my colleague Nick Deenadto who will describe the case we're joining today and then you'll hear a little more from local entrepreneur Mike Dejakamo who will tell you what this case means to him personally. Nick, >> good morning. My name is Nick Deenadeno.

[00:01:41]I'm an attorney with the Institute for Justice. As Bob said, we're here today with our clients Mike and Jacqueline, who last year opened up the Barberhop Blackstone Speak Easy in the building behind me.

[00:01:54]They did so to honor their their recently deceased father, Don, who made a living cutting hair in this very building for 30 years. Mike and Jacine know a thing or two about running a bar.

[00:02:06]But what they didn't know was that their choice of name for their business could get them in trouble with the law.

[00:02:11]Nebraska makes it illegal for them to use common words like barber or barber shop. And it also prohibits them from using the ubiquitous red, white, and blue barber pull in association with their business. All because they lack commercial barber's license from the state.

[00:02:28]As a result of this, Mike and Jacqueline face criminal sanctions.

[00:02:32]That's not just wrong, it's unconstitutional. The First Amendment protects their ability to promote and advertise their business. The state's ability to regulate a business promoting itself is limited to preventing real world harms like fraud or deceit. But there is no deceit here. Mike's bar is well a bar. It serves cocktails and it's only open at night. Nobody would reasonably come entering the bar in the midnight hour looking for a shave or a haircut.

[00:03:05]Despite this fact, criminal sanctions still loom. And that's why the Institute for Justice is teaming up with Mike and Jacqueline and the University of Nebraska's First Amendment Clinic to appeal this case to the ETH circuit. A victory here will not only secure our clients speech rights, it will also safeguard the rights of business owners all over Nebraska from future unduly burdensome, unnecessary, and overbearing regulations like these. Now I will turn things over to Mike who will tell you a little bit more about what this lawsuit means to him.

[00:03:41]I don't have a whole lot to add other than, you know, we opened this space with the uh the concept in part with my sister Jacqueline and our general manager Triton Schwarz uh kind of as a tribute to um to to my dad uh who spent over 47 years in uh the hair cutting industry and all all he had a lot of his barber friends that uh you know spent many years in the profession. So, you know, our concept was a was a tribute uh to the barbering profession. Uh and so we were shocked when we got a letter, a certified letter from the state saying that we could be uh face criminal charges uh and other things um for simply having the barbershop name. Uh so we truly believe, you know, this is a first amendment issue. uh we believe we have the right uh especially since we're not governed by the state board of barber examiners to have this name. Um and so this is just really the beginning of a journey that we believe at the end of the day uh we will we'll win. Uh and today, you know, we we're going to uh temporarily change the name to the censored shop uh more as a protest uh but because we don't want to go to jail.

[00:04:56]So, um, uh, that's what we're doing today. And so, uh, we appreciate, uh, everybody and all the the lawyers who've seen this as an important case and and really, um, an important case for other people out there who, uh, want to name their business something and and maybe can't, uh, according to the state. So, uh, you know, this is a really important case to us and, uh, we really think that this is, uh, we'll we'll win this case at the end of the day.

[00:05:26]So, we'll be happy to take questions, but before we do, Mike is going to cover the small barber pole in front of his bar, lest you all become hopelessly confused. Mike.

[00:05:37]>> All right.

[00:05:39]You guys want to help?

[00:05:49]All right, welcome to the censored shop.

[00:06:07]>> All right, thank you all for coming.

[00:06:08]We're happy to take any questions anyone has or we can stick around afterwards for one-on- ones.

[00:06:17]>> What happens now? So this morning we filed a notice of appeal. Uh the district court has denied a preliminary injunction in this case basically saying that the term barbershop is inherently misleading no matter how fervently we tell people that we're a bar. And we're going to ask the court of appeals to overturn that. Uh people don't expect a barber themed bar to be run by barbers just like people don't expect a pirate themed bar to be run by a licensed sea captain. People have common sense.

[00:06:46]regulators should too.

[00:06:48]>> What is the main argument of uh of of this? Is it that confusion that people that people will think it's a barber shop or expect to get a haircut here?

[00:06:56]>> The state of Nebraska thinks it owns the word barber. The state of Nebraska thinks that it and no one else is in charge of who gets to say the word barber and who gets to say the word barberh shop. That's wrong. People have a right to listen to who they want to listen to and entrepreneurs have the right to advertise their businesses as long as they're not fooling anyone. And that's exactly the principle that we expect the court to recognize here.