Court Upholds Chicago's Public Nudity Ordinance
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled against a woman who sued the City of Chicago after she was cited for public nudity when she participated in GoTopless Day 2014. Tagami v. City of Chicago, (7th Cir. Nov. 8, 2017).
Ms. Tagami participated in the 2014 event by walking around the streets of Chicago topless. She was cited for violating a Chicago ordinance that prohibits public nudity. She subsequently filed a lawsuit against Chicago, claiming that the ordinance was unconstitutional because it violated her free speech rights under the First Amendment and unlawfully discriminates against her on the basis of her gender. The district court had dismissed her lawsuit, and she appealed to the Seventh Circuit.
First, the Seventh Circuit found that Chicago's ordinance prohibits conduct, not speech. The court acknowledged that some conduct may be protected as "expressive" speech if the conduct conveys its own message without additional speech. Being in a state of nudity, the court held, is not an inherently expressive condition. Even if the conduct was expressive speech, the court determined that the Chicago public nudity ordinance would survive strict scrutiny because its purpose (to promote moral norms and public order) were both self-evident and important.
Second, although the court found that the ordinance does treat men and women differently, the different classifications and treatment under the ordinance did not rise to the level of discrimination, given the inherent physical differences between men and women.
Post Authored by Julie Tappendorf
0 comments:
Post a Comment