SCM NEWS & OPINIONS

Free the Nipple-Fort Collins v. City of Fort Collins, Colorado, 916 F.3d 792 (10th Cir. Feb. 15, 2019)

It looks like the City of Fort Collins, Colorado will just have to bear with bare breasts for now. Panicked by the prospect of partially nude protestors parading in the presence of pre-teens, the City banned women from baring their breasts without mandating any matching modesty from men. Perturbed by this prudish prohibition, Free the Nipple sought and secured a preliminary injunction preventing enforcement of the ordinance. Parting ways with the majority of courts, the Tenth Circuit affirmed issuance of the injunction, concluding that the City’s proffered justifications for disparate treatment of male and female breasts were rooted more in stereotypes and conjecture than in sound policy, and therefore likely violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.