by Bryant Venosdel, Student Reporter
Woman can be topless in public in Oklahoma and five other states due to a federal appeals court ruling.
The court decision happened in Fort Collins, Colorado and was brought to the 10th Circuit Court on the grounds of the current topless laws being discriminatory against the female population.
Oklahoma City’s Police Department is still advising to not be topless in public. Since Oklahoma is in the 10th Circuit Court with Colorado (as well as Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico and Kansas), the Oklahoma City Police Department had to release a response to the decision upheld by the court.
“We will continue to enforce the law as outlined by City Ordinance and State Law as the preliminary injunction issued by the 10th Circuit Court is in reference to an appeal specific to the City of Fort Collins in Colorado.
Therefore, someone in OKC who is in violation of the law could be cited and/or jailed as this is a misdemeanor crime,” is OKC’s Police Department statement on the issue.
Oklahoma’s Attorney General Mike Hunter has released a press statement on the issue regarding public nudity in a recent press release.
“The Tenth Circuit’s preliminary decision in the Fort Collins case- a case that has now ended without a full adjunction, does not change local and state laws in Oklahoma on the subject,” Hunter said. The 10th Circuit Court’s decision on public nudity is not binding to Oklahoma or its laws.
The courts have defined public nudity as “the showing of the human male or female genitals, pubic area, or buttocks with less than a fully opaque covering; or the showing of the female breasts with less than a fully opaque covering of any part of the nipple.”
If any part of this indecency ordinance is broken then females and males can still be arrested for public nudity.
Similar rulings of public nudity have been issued by 2nd, 4th and 5th Circuits, as well as courts in New Hampshire, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Alabama, Arizona, Texas, Florida, New Mexico, Mississippi, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Minnesota according to the press statement released by Attorney General Hunter.
The Chief of Police at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, Ethan Kennedy had a statement on the court rulings as well.
“The ruling was out of our state,” Kennedy said. “It’s been a long, drawn out process with a couple year long legal battles.”