A ruling protects a Maryland resort town ordinance banning women from going topless in public during the length of an ongoing lawsuit challenging the ordinance.
The Daily Times of Salisbury reports that Chief Judge James Bredar of the U.S. District Court of Maryland submitted his ruling Tuesday in favor of the town of Ocean City. A preliminary injunction motion threatened to have the ordinance repealed.
Bredar denied the motion because the plaintiffs haven't shown they're likely to succeed on the case's merits.
Plaintiffs argue they have the legal right to be bare-chested in public in the same places as men for purposes other than breastfeeding. They say the ordinance violates an equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and the Declaration of Rights to the Maryland Constitution.