Women who bared their breasts in Laconia lost a battle at the New Hampshire State Supreme Court earlier this year. It is a trend that has followed to the 8th circuit.
Two women challenged a Springfield Missouri ordinance that prohibits women from exposing their nipples in public. They claimed the ordinance violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights under the Equal Protection Clause. The court did not agree.
You can read the decision at the link. There is some good stuff in there. Most of it relates to the appeal on procedural grounds. The outcome is, however, predictable.
As with the New Hampshire decision, exposing human anatomy associated with the intimacy in public presents problems for both peace and shared morality. Refusing to accept this does not make it go away.
Men’s and women’s bodies are different. Society at large accepts this. The intersection of physical differences and intimacy are well understood and long-standing as such the state has an interest in defining and regulating nudity in public based on these understandings.
There are competing rulings. If I understand correctly the Tenth Circuit went the other direction in some aspect of this debate. That suggests this will at some point find it’s way up to e US Supreme Court. The outcome of which will depend entirely on the grounds by which such prohibitions are challenged.
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