Roanoke, Virginia City Code Sec. 21-144(a) provides that "It shall be unlawful for any person to administer, for hire or reward, to any person of the opposite sex, any massage, any alcohol rub or similar treatment, any fomentation, any bath or any electric or magnetic treatment." Another section excepts medical massages (assuming that this exception is clear enough and narrow enough to avoid swallowing the rule), and "barbers or beauticians who give massage to the scalp, face, neck or shoulders only." Constitutional, or a violation of the Equal Protection Clause prohibition on sex classifications?

Note that a man and a woman were recently convicted for violating this ordinance; their massage seemed sexual, but the ordinance isn't limited to sexual massages. Same-sex marriage naturally played a role in the legal analysis. Thanks to Ben Winograd for the pointer.