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Free the Nipple: Federal judge tells Fort Collins it’s hands-off

By JOEY BUNCH 02/22/2017 | updated 8 years ago

The nipple should be free in Fort Collins. That is the ruling of a federal judge in Denver blocking city police from enforcing a ban on women baring their breasts in public.

“Frankly, even if this ordinance were not on the books I doubt that women would be regularly walking through downtown Fort Collins with their breasts exposed, or parading in front of elementary schools, or swimming topless in the public pool, as defendant cautioned us during the hearing,” U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson said in his ruling.

The lawsuit was filed last May by Free the Nipple, a global equal rights organization, and local plaintiffs Brittiany Hoagland and Samantha Six.

In his 12-page ruling Jackson took exception to the city code’s language, “Women are prohibited from …” as unconstitutional.

Denver civil rights lawyer David Lane, who represented Free the Nipple, called the ruling “another example of the federal courts enforcing the Constitution in the face of the police and the City fighting against the Bill of Rights.”

Fort Collins imposes a $250 fine for a female older than 10 to displaying her breasts “below the top of the nipple.”

 

JOEY BUNCH

Reporter

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