Ever so slowly the city of Las Vegas like some tribal area of Pakistan is being brought into compliance with a distant federal government that has so far been unable to extend its influence this far out into the hinterland.

Apparently, there is something called the Constitution that allows the odd practice of free speech in public forums. Obviously, Las Vegas was sure this distant government back East didn't mean to apply this strange custom to every public forum.

Take, for example, Fremont Street Experience, a gigantic pedestrian walk under a canopy that offers a multimillion dollar light show. Fremont Street Experience was created in 1995 out of closed-off public roads to attract tourists downtown. Las Vegas gets that tourists don't want to see booths with literature on God, or union protestors with leaflets on labor practice or, just imagine it, freaky lefties leading a protest against the war in Iraq. That would be too much like home and this is a vacation. So, always being concerned about our guests, the city of Las Vegas banned such things.

The city decided to simply not allow any of that stuff to go on at Fremont Street Experience. Las Vegas has been working for nearly a decade and spending truckloads of taxpayer money on lawyers to make sure the city can continue to ban free speech now and ban free speech forever (to paraphrase another pandering regional politician fighting the power of the feds). The city has done everything possible to avoid this crazy protection of free speech. It even covers panhandlers!

Perhaps the city was hoping the third time would be the charm; it wasn't. Las Vegas has once again lost a case before the very stubborn 9th District Court of Appeals that again is demanding the city follow the Constitution. This sets a scary precedent by applying federal law to Las Vegas. Where can all this end? What could be next? How far down the road can male cocktail servers be?