By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Created: August 04, 2021 04:59 PM
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) - A federal appeals court on Wednesday affirmed a Maryland beach town's right to ban women from topless sunbathing.
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond ruled unanimously that Ocean City's law, which allows men to be topless but not women, is constitutional.
Ocean City passed its law in 2017 after one of the plaintiffs in the case, Chelsea Eline, contacted Ocean City police and asserted a right to go topless.
The panel's ruling notes that courts across the country have upheld laws banning women from topless sunbathing on public beaches. While the law imposes a restriction on women that is not imposed on men, Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr. wrote that Ocean City's elected leaders are within their rights to enact laws that protect public sensibilities.