Louisiana’s House Judiciary Committee has recently approved a bill that would outlaw wearing low-slung pants in public:
It shall be unlawful for any person to appear in public wearing his pants below his waist and thereby exposing his skin or intimate clothing.
Now I agree that it’s proper to regulate some public behavior on the grounds that it’s offensive to passersby, especially because of its sexual suggestiveness — and so do you unless you think that people should be free to have sex on the street corner. Even libertarians might, I think, take the view that so long as we have publicly owned common property, some such restrictions may properly be imposed on it in the interest of preserving it as an enjoyable place for the maximum number of users. (Consider also bans on public urination, which I believe are chiefly esthetic measures rather than health measures.) I do think this law goes too far, especially given that it authorizes a punishment of up to six months in jail (“And what are you in for?” “Third strike illegal pants-wearing.”), but I can see the contrary view.
I also understand that the legislature understandably focuses on problems (or perceived problems) that currently exist, rather than the purely hypothetical ones.
Still, it seems to me a bit odd that, if this law passes, it would be illegal to wear low-riding pants that show your underwear — but perfectly legal to take off those pants and just walk around in the underwear.
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