It comes to the Supreme Court of the United States the appeal of a group of women against a ban on topless sunbathing on the beach in Ocean City, Maryland. In the appeal, the women argue that the ordinance approved in 2017 by the town is unconstitutional because it is discriminatory, denying women bathers what men are allowed, that is to go bare-chested.
The Richmond federal appeals court last August unanimously agreed with the city authorities, claiming that, as do so many other US beach resorts where topless on the beach is taboo, they have imposed restrictions on women, not men, to protect public sensitivity. And so now the donne del Maryland have decided to turn to the Supreme Court to ask for their appeal to be accepted, underlining whether the “protection of traditional moral sensibilities” is so important that it can also impose discriminatory behavior towards women.
Now the Court will be able to give an answer by next January 7th. It is not the first time that the Supreme Court has been called into question by groups of women fighting against anti topless orders: in 2020 it had not accepted the appeal filed by three women who had been fined in New Hampshire for showing themselves topless, and they had always used the argument of the unconstitutionality of prohibitions aimed only at women.
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