BATON ROUGE, La. - People who wear low-slung pants that expose skin or "intimate clothing" would face a fine of up to $500 and possible jail time under a bill filed by a Jefferson Parish lawmaker.
State Rep. Derrick Shepherd said he filed the bill because he was tired of catching glimpses of boxer shorts and G-strings over the lowered belt lines of young adults.
The bill would punish anyone caught wearing low-riding pants with a fine of as much as $500 or as many as six months in jail, or both.
"I'm sick of seeing it," said Shepherd, a first-term legislator. "The community's outraged. And if parents can't do their job, if parents can't regulate what their children wear, then there should be a law."
The bill would be tacked onto the state's obscenity law, which restricts sexual activity in public places and the sale of sexually explicit items.
Joe Cook, head of the American Civil Liberties Union's Louisiana chapter, said the bill probably does not meet the U.S. Supreme Court's standard for the prohibition of obscene behavior under the First Amendment.
"What about a woman who is wearing a bathing suit under her garment or she has something like a sarong wrapped around her and it's below her waist," he said. "I can think of a lot of workers, plumbers, who are working and expose their buttocks ..."
Hey, I gotta admit I'd like to tell some of the fools walking around to get their pants up from around their ankles, but.. low slung pants on the ladies. The dilemma!
I am pretty heavily against the death penalty, but i seriously would not have a problem if people trying to corrupt our government with these facioust(sp) laws were shoved to the front of the line at death row.
-xzionis human mage on mannoroth
-zeltharath tauren shaman on wildhammer
A Westwego councilman in 2002 ditched his attempt to bar low-riding jeans from public buildings after the city attorney reported that an ordinance regulating drawers-exposing jeans would interfere with freedom of speech and would not meet federal standards.
In 2000, Orleans Parish Deputy Assessor Donald Smith called for a city ordinance against wearing pants "below the equator," as he described the practice at the time. That measure appears never to have sparked a broad public debate.
And a year earlier, state Rep. Cynthia Willard, D-New Orleans, filed a bill requiring Louisiana's 66 school boards to ban baggy pants that expose underwear or backsides. That bill, which was never heard by the House Education Committee, said the fashion "encourages youth to engage in inappropriate behavior and shows a lack of respect for others in society."
low slung pants on the ladies. The dilemma!
