Topeka ? Kansas won’t enforce a law limiting the size and content of signs along highways for adult stores because of an agreement Tuesday between the attorney general and lawyers for a sexually oriented business.

The agreement would settle a federal lawsuit filed against Attorney General Steve Six by the Lion’s Den Adult Superstore, which is along Interstate 70 in Abilene. The business’s attorneys argued the law was an improper restraint of its free commercial speech.

The law applied to signs for adult stores within a mile of a highway and said they couldn’t be more than 40 square feet or contain more than the name, location, phone number and operating hours. Legislators enacted it in 2006 but gave businesses until July 1, 2009, to modify existing signs.

Only days before that deadline, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson of Topeka blocked the law’s enforcement while she considered the Lion’s Den lawsuit. Six spokeswoman Ashley Anstaett said the judge’s order suggested the store would prevail at trial, and Anstaett noted similar laws have been struck down in at least three states, including Missouri.

Six’s office and Lion’s Den attorneys filed their agreement with Robinson and expect her to sign off. The state agreed not to enforce the law, and the store’s attorneys agreed not to try to force the state to cover their fees.

“It would be fiscally irresponsible to continue litigation that has very little chance of success,” Six said in a statement. “This agreement avoids unnecessary litigation costs and prevents taxpayers from being on the hook for the plaintiff’s attorney’s fees.”

Richard Bryant, a Kansas City, Mo., attorney representing the Lion’s Den, said the agreement probably saved Kansas taxpayers $150,000 in litigation expenses. He said it’s also a good result, given past court rulings on such issues.

But Phillip Cosby, a retired Army master sergeant from Overland Park who has led a statewide campaign against pornography and adult stores, said Six was using excuses for “becoming timid.”

Cosby said law enforcement officials’ first duty is to protect the public and noted that tobacco and liquor advertising have been regulated because of the products’ harmful health effects.

“Why does the sex industry get a pass, a wink and a nod, when they have been proven to produce a negative impact in communities?” he said.