[2] It referred to the prohibition of dancing in all New York City spaces open to the public selling food and/or drink unless they had obtained a cabaret license.
[3] Critics argued that the license was expensive and difficult to obtain and that enforcement was arbitrary and weaponized against marginalized groups,[4] but proponents insisted that the law minimized noise complaints.
Any room, place or space in the city in which any musical entertainment, singing, dancing or other form of amusement is permitted in connection with the restaurant business or the business of directly or indirectly selling to the public food or drink, except eating or drinking places, which provide incidental musical entertainment, without dancing, either by mechanical devices, or by not more than three persons.
[7]: p.57-68 In 1971, the Cabaret Law was modified to exempt musical performance "by not more than three persons playing piano, organ, accordion or guitar or any stringed instrument," which disproportionately affected jazz since drums, reeds, and horns were not allowed, as was stated in the Chiasson I case[11]: p.643 and the Chevigny book.
The limits on types of instruments were ruled unconstitutional in Warren Chiasson v. New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, 132 Misc.2d 640 (N.Y. County Sup.
Ct., 1986),[11] and the three-musician limit was found to be unconstitutional in a later decision in the same case in Warren Chiasson v. New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, 138 Misc.2d 394 (N.Y. County Sup.
[18] Several efforts were founded over time to repeal the cabaret law, including Legalize Dancing NYC in the early 2000's and Metropolis in Motion later in that decade.