Free Republic

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by three women arrested for violating a New Hampshire city ordinance by exposing their breasts in public as part of the so-called "Free the Nipple" movement. The rejection leaves in place a 2019 ruling by New Hampshire's top court that upheld their convictions for violating a Laconia, N.H., measure that prohibits female toplessness in public. The women -- Heidi Lilley, Kia Sinclair and Ginger Pierro -- argued the ban violates the Constitution. The ordinance makes it illegal to uncover female breasts “with less than a fully opaque covering of...

This has been a closely watched case in New Hampshire, both in terms of free speech and gender discrimination. (And I don’t mean “closely watched” just because it involves topless women.) Three Granite State ladies, Heidi Lilley, Kia Sinclair and Ginger Pierro, were arrested in 2016 for going topless at a local beach and refusing to cover up after other bathers complained. They were subsequently convicted of violating a local indecent exposure law. Their initial appeals were rejected and now the state’s highest court has agreed with the previous judges and declared that the conviction was not a violation...