Friday evening, the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri issued a preliminary injunction in Free the Nipple, et al., v. City of Springfield. The injunction stops Springfield from enforcing a discriminatory provision in the City’s indecent exposure law that made it illegal for women to show any portion of their breasts beneath the areola as an act of protest.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri filed the suit on Oct. 26 following the plaintiffs’ August protest in which they appeared at Park Central Square without shirts, but with their nipples covered. They did so to decry how men and women were treated differently under Springfield’s previous indecent exposure ordinance. Under the previous law, women were prohibited from showing their nipples, but men were not. A bare majority of the Springfield City Council responded by repealing that ordinance and enacting another one that made it a crime to show “the female breast below a point immediately above the top of the areola[.]” However, the ordinance exempted performances for adult entertainment.
“We are pleased that the Women of Springfield are now free from the discriminatory language that objectified their bodies and, in doing so, stifled their political voice,” said Jeffrey A. Mittman, ACLU of Missouri Executive Director.
“The protections afforded by the First Amendment are not limited to speech that is deemed palatable or acceptable by the City nor are they intended to be exercised differently for women than for men,” explains Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Missouri
Copies of the court documents can be found in the dockets section on the ACLU of Missouri website.