A Nebraska bar owner has filed a federal lawsuit after the Nebraska Board of Barber Examiners told him that using "barber shop" in his business name is illegal without a barber license.
Mike DiGiacomo owns and operates Blackstone Socials and the speakeasy below called The Barber Shop Blackstone. The cocktail bar serves drinks, not haircuts, but the state barber board says the name violates Nebraska law.
DiGiacomo and his siblings chose the barber shop theme to pay homage to their father and other Italian barbers.
"Everything was going great. The bar had a great opening," DiGiacomo said.
In April, he received a letter from the state barber board stating the bar's name broke the law by using "barber shop" without having a license to cut hair. The letter warned he could face "civil and criminal consequences" and "criminal and civil penalties" for violations of the Nebraska Barber Act if he didn't change the name.
"We went through the proper procedures to get the name approved by the Secretary of State's office. They approved the name, and so we were taken aback," DiGiacomo said.
DiGiacomo initially agreed to comply, planning to rebrand the bar and change the barber poles. But he said the cost would have been significant for a small business.
"There are significant costs to rebrand. It's not something that we wanted to do or put expenses towards, but at a moment, it was a lot cheaper than trying to fight the state of Nebraska," DiGiacomo said.
The University of Nebraska Lincoln's First Amendment Clinic agreed the state was overreaching and took on DiGiacomo's case for free.
"I don't think this is the spirit of the law or even the letter of the law," said Sydney Hayes, assistant director of the clinic.
"I'm confident about how this case is going to proceed. I think we're confident that the court will find that the threatened sanctions violate the bar's First Amendment rights," Hayes said.
In the lawsuit, they argue no reasonable person would confuse his bar with an actual barbershop.
"It just means a lot to us to keep calling this the barbershop. That was the intent of our concept—to pay tribute to our dad and all his buddies," DiGiacomo said.
The lawsuit names Nebraska's Attorney General and three members of the state's Board of Barber Examiners as defendants. The Nebraska Board of Barber Examiners did not respond to a request for comment.
Hayes said the complaint is filed, but the clinic still needs to serve the board.
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