It depends entirely on the jurisdiction. Take the city of Seattle, for example (I know this because I planned an executed a nude photo shoot in public view inside the city limits and sought legal council ahead of time to ensure I wan’t risking being charged with any crimes). The general rule for Seattle hinges on whether the activity is intended to tittilate or sexually arouse observers - and if that is obviously not the intent, then even full nudity is not illegal. Many other large cities have very similar ordinances.
The smaller the town, and the more conservative the region, the stricter and less flexible the ordinances. There are beaches in South Carolina, for example, where they even regulate the minimum amount of coverage for bikinis and beachware.
It’s not city ordinances but state law, you can legally be naked in public throughout Washington state as long as your intent isn’t to sexually arouse others.
You are mistaken. City ordinances absolutely comes into play here. In the US, you are subject to federal law, any additional state laws, any additional county laws, and then any additional city municipal-codes/ordinances.
Here’s the Seattle city ordinance that applies:
Seattle Municipal Code, Chapter 12A.10.130 Indecent Exposure, Paragraph A.
A person is guilty of indecent exposure if he or she intentionally makes any open and obscene exposure of his or her person or the person of another knowing that such conduct is likely to cause reasonable affront or alarm.
My understanding is that Seattle previously had a broad law against public nudity which was challenged in state court, the municipal code you cited was created to bring Seattle into explicit compliance with the state constitution after losing in court. I’m not a lawyer but that’s at least how it was explained to me, there’s nothing special about public nudity laws in Seattle relative to the rest of Washington because the courts have already clarified the situation and the same rules apply everywhere through the state. I did some quick googling and it looks like this is roughly accurate. The court case was funnily enough, Seattle vs. Johnson.
This doesn’t invalidate my earlier statement that citizens are still subject to city ordinances.
There are around 20,000 cities and municipalities in the United States, most of them have public-nudity/indecent-exposure laws.
You successfully made the point that the legality of city ordinances can be challenged in higher courts (and even sometimes overturned) but the reality is that most people have neither the funding nor the time nor the expertise to take that up…which means ultimately you’re still subject to a city/municipality ordinances as well as state and federal.
In 2017, Tagami v City of Chicago, the US Court of appeals for 7th Circuit ruled 2-1 that the city’s public nudity ordinance did not violate the complainant’s rights and upheld the lower court decisions (which meant that City of Chicago’s ordinance remained intact and validated as enforceable by the city).
At the end of the day, yes you do have to be cognizant of the ordinances/codes of the city in question and cannot rely on State/Federal law alone.
I think you may have misunderstood me, I was just making the point that there’s nothing special about Seattle public nudity laws and that the same rules technically apply throughout the entire state of Washington. I’m not trying to invalidate any statements or make any points about what laws people have to follow or how the US legal system works or anything like that. Someone said Seattle had special rules about public nudity, I was just clarifying that those same rules apply throughout the state and nothing else.
I was about to put out a throwaway comment about it depending on whether you look cute, but I guess that’s Reddit toxicity and @krayj brings the goods. Excellent answer!
Ah yes the classic “planned and executed a nude public photoshoot” situation. There’s so many of those though…which one was yours so we can really pin down these jurisdictional laws?
Well, I already named the jurisdiction: Seattle, Washington, USA.
The date/time shouldn’t matter since the ordinances haven’t changed, but it was Aug 12, 2012 just in case anyone reading this just happened to be in Seattle at the time and saw us. It was spectated by quite a number of people due to the size of the production - we had lights, a make-up/hair stylist, my assistant, the model, plus security.
It depends entirely on the jurisdiction. Take the city of Seattle, for example (I know this because I planned an executed a nude photo shoot in public view inside the city limits and sought legal council ahead of time to ensure I wan’t risking being charged with any crimes). The general rule for Seattle hinges on whether the activity is intended to tittilate or sexually arouse observers - and if that is obviously not the intent, then even full nudity is not illegal. Many other large cities have very similar ordinances.
The smaller the town, and the more conservative the region, the stricter and less flexible the ordinances. There are beaches in South Carolina, for example, where they even regulate the minimum amount of coverage for bikinis and beachware.
It’s not city ordinances but state law, you can legally be naked in public throughout Washington state as long as your intent isn’t to sexually arouse others.
You are mistaken. City ordinances absolutely comes into play here. In the US, you are subject to federal law, any additional state laws, any additional county laws, and then any additional city municipal-codes/ordinances.
Here’s the Seattle city ordinance that applies:
Seattle Municipal Code, Chapter 12A.10.130 Indecent Exposure, Paragraph A.
source:
http://clerk.seattle.gov/search/ordinances/124301#:~:text=10 as follows%3A-,12A.,cause reasonable affront or alarm.
My understanding is that Seattle previously had a broad law against public nudity which was challenged in state court, the municipal code you cited was created to bring Seattle into explicit compliance with the state constitution after losing in court. I’m not a lawyer but that’s at least how it was explained to me, there’s nothing special about public nudity laws in Seattle relative to the rest of Washington because the courts have already clarified the situation and the same rules apply everywhere through the state. I did some quick googling and it looks like this is roughly accurate. The court case was funnily enough, Seattle vs. Johnson.
This doesn’t invalidate my earlier statement that citizens are still subject to city ordinances.
There are around 20,000 cities and municipalities in the United States, most of them have public-nudity/indecent-exposure laws.
You successfully made the point that the legality of city ordinances can be challenged in higher courts (and even sometimes overturned) but the reality is that most people have neither the funding nor the time nor the expertise to take that up…which means ultimately you’re still subject to a city/municipality ordinances as well as state and federal.
In 2017, Tagami v City of Chicago, the US Court of appeals for 7th Circuit ruled 2-1 that the city’s public nudity ordinance did not violate the complainant’s rights and upheld the lower court decisions (which meant that City of Chicago’s ordinance remained intact and validated as enforceable by the city).
At the end of the day, yes you do have to be cognizant of the ordinances/codes of the city in question and cannot rely on State/Federal law alone.
I think you may have misunderstood me, I was just making the point that there’s nothing special about Seattle public nudity laws and that the same rules technically apply throughout the entire state of Washington. I’m not trying to invalidate any statements or make any points about what laws people have to follow or how the US legal system works or anything like that. Someone said Seattle had special rules about public nudity, I was just clarifying that those same rules apply throughout the state and nothing else.
So is it illegal to be in Washington to intentially arouse others fully clothed?
And what about unintentionally arousal? Like can you not be shirtless if you are so hot that your body puts others into heat?
I was about to put out a throwaway comment about it depending on whether you look cute, but I guess that’s Reddit toxicity and @krayj brings the goods. Excellent answer!
Ah yes the classic “planned and executed a nude public photoshoot” situation. There’s so many of those though…which one was yours so we can really pin down these jurisdictional laws?
Well, I already named the jurisdiction: Seattle, Washington, USA.
The date/time shouldn’t matter since the ordinances haven’t changed, but it was Aug 12, 2012 just in case anyone reading this just happened to be in Seattle at the time and saw us. It was spectated by quite a number of people due to the size of the production - we had lights, a make-up/hair stylist, my assistant, the model, plus security.
!nothingeverhappens