Free the Nipple - Springfield Residents Promoting Equality v. City of Springfield, No. 17-3467 (8th Cir. 2019)
Annotate this CaseFTN filed suit against the City, alleging that its indecent exposure ordinance violates the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment to the City and held that Ways v. City of Lincoln, 331 F.3d 596 (8th Cir. 2003) was controlling in this case. In Ways, this court upheld an ordinance prohibiting the showing of the female breast with less than a fully opaque covering on any part of the areola and nipple against an equal protection challenge. In this case, like in Ways, the City's ordinance was substantially related to its important governmental interests in promoting public decency and proscribing public nudity to protect morals, public order, health, and safety.
Court Description: Per Curiam. Before Chief Judge Smith, Benton, and Stras, Circuit Judges] Civil Case - Civil Rights. In challenge to a city ordinance as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause by treating men and women differently by prohibiting women, but not men, from exposing their areolas and nipples in public the district court granted summary judgment to the City, relying on Ways v. City of Lincoln, 331 F.3d 596 (8th Cir. 2003). On appeal, this court is bound by Ways and rejects appellants' contention that intervening Supreme Court decisions cast doubt or supersede the holding in Ways. The ordinance is substantially related to its important governmental interests in promoting public decency and proscribing public nudity to protect morals, public order, health, and safety.
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