An Adam & Eve store on Richmond Parkway is suing Fort Bend County to keep from being classified as a sexually oriented business, a label that could force the shop to shut its doors because of how close it sits to a residential neighborhood. The store's operators say their merchandise mix of lingerie, apparel, sleepwear, wellness and personal-care items makes it no different from products sold at mainstream retailers and pharmacies.
The lawsuit, filed in July, was first reported by Chron, whose reporting forms the bulk of what's known so far about the dispute. According to the outlet, Adam & Eve's operators sued Fort Bend County in the 434th Judicial District Court after the county said the standard permits it had received, including a lease buildout approval and certificate of occupancy, never authorized the location to run as a sexually oriented business.
Fort Bend County's regulations define a sexually oriented business as a commercial enterprise whose primary business involves products or services intended to provide sexual stimulation or gratification, the same basic definition used under Section 243.002 of the Texas Local Government Code, which grants counties broad authority to regulate such businesses under Section 243.003 to protect public health and safety. County category rules for adult bookstores, adult theaters, adult video stores and sex parlors require those businesses to sit at least 1,500 feet from homes, schools, churches, parks, hospitals and child-care facilities. Adam & Eve itself has said its Richmond Parkway store sits within that 1,500-foot distance of a residential neighborhood, according to the store's own court filing as reported by Chron.
What the County Found Inside the Store
Per the same account, Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office investigators began contacting the store in May and visited multiple times, documenting its merchandise. The store removed crotchless panties and swapped nipple-exposing lingerie for full-length lingerie, the outlet's reporting states. Adam & Eve maintains the store does not contain adult arcade booths, viewing rooms, theaters, stages, live entertainment, on-premises adult services, nudity or semi-nudity, and it does not sell or display pornographic media.
Huma Ahmed, identified in the lawsuit coverage, disputed Adam & Eve's claim that lingerie is its primary business, per the report. The county has said Adam & Eve needs a sexually oriented business permit, while the store contends that county-regulated products make up only a minority of its floor space, inventory and expected revenue. Adam & Eve has said none of its roughly 20 Texas locations requires such a permit, and the store describes its primary business as intimate apparel and general specialty retail merchandise rather than sexually oriented goods.
A Fight Over What Was Disclosed at Permitting
Fort Bend County has said its approvals for the location did not authorize operation as a sexually oriented business, and the store did not disclose the products it planned to sell when applying for those permits, according to the same reporting. The county approved the location for regular retail use. Adam & Eve's lawsuit states the county may enforce its regulations and compel the store's closure if the sexually oriented business classification stands.
The case is scheduled for a hearing on the county's plea to the jurisdiction on September 2 at the Fort Bend County Justice Center in Richmond, presided over by District Judge J. Christian Becerra, who took office in January 2021 after his 2020 election, according to Fort Bend County. A non-jury trial is set for February 16, 2027, and the two sides must complete mediation before then.
A Legal Fight With Deep Texas Roots
This isn't the first time Adam & Eve's parent company has tangled with Texas over adult-product restrictions. PHE, Inc., the North Carolina-based company founded in the 1970s by First Amendment advocate Phil Harvey that now operates more than 100 stores nationwide, previously won a landmark case when the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Texas Penal Code Section 43.23's ban on selling sexual devices in Reliable Consultants, Inc. v. Earle, ruling the ban violated the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause. Notably, that penal code section still contains statutory text creating a presumption of intent to promote obscene devices if someone possesses six or more identical items, language the Texas Legislature has never formally repealed even though it's unenforceable, per Alamo City Education Services.
Federal courts elsewhere have gone the other direction on zoning specifically. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Adam and Eve Jonesboro, LLC v. Perrin that selling sexually oriented devices isn't expressive speech protected by the First Amendment, which let that municipality enforce a 1,000-foot distance buffer from homes, churches and daycares. Fort Bend County's fight also isn't unique regionally: adult retailer Cindie's filed a 2022 federal civil rights lawsuit against nearby Missouri City over adult business permit denials, according to the Houston Chronicle, underscoring how often these permitting disputes surface across Southeast Texas.
Other intimate retail chains competing with Adam & Eve in Texas, including Christals and Lovers, have built their store operations around non-pornographic apparel, sleepwear and wellness novelties specifically to secure standard retail zoning approvals, according to SEC filings. That pattern mirrors the argument Adam & Eve is now making in court: that a modern lingerie-and-wellness boutique shouldn't be swept into the same regulatory category as an adult bookstore or video arcade simply because some of its products carry an intimate purpose.
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