A TV station’s Web site reports:
[An ACLU] lawsuit filed Tuesday challenges a new state law that effectively bans nude summer camps for teenagers, saying it violates the constitutional right to privacy. . . .
The law was passed in March in response to a weeklong residential camp for 11- to 18-year-olds last June at White Tail. . . .
“Legislators overreacted and in the process they substantially interfered with the right of families to make lifestyle choices,” Virginia ACLU executive director Kent Willis said. “Using the overall logic of this law, legislators are now free to prevent children from swimming, playing baseball or riding a bus.” . . .
Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore said last year that such camps could attract pedophiles and child pornographers. . . .
I’m generally for giving parents lots of flexibility in how to raise their children. But even if this law is unwise (and I think the Attorney General’s argument is not implausible, though I think nonconsensual nude photos via hidden cameras are a more likely risk than true child porn, which requires photographing lewd nudity, not just nudity as such), I really doubt that the Constitution protects such a right. And the fact that it’s talked about as a matter of “privacy” just shows what a malleable and ultimately unhelpful word “privacy” has come to be.
Clayton Cramer has more on this, though I don’t entirely agree with his analysis.
UPDATE: Curmudgeonly Clerk has some more specific legal points related to all this.
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