Free the Nipple–Fort Collins and the Enduring Fight for Gender Equality

On February 15, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Free the Nipple–Fort Collins v. City of Fort Collins held that a public nudity ordinance that banned the exposure of female breasts violated the Equal Protection Clause. In doing so, the court split from the Fourth, Seventh, and Eighth Circuits and established that ordinances that restrict women, but not men, from being topless in public are unconstitutional. This Comment argues that the Tenth Circuit was correct in holding that the prohibition on public exposure of female breasts violated the Equal Protection Clause, as the ban did not substantially serve any important governmental interest. It further argues that female-only toplessness bans should be wholly struck down because they are based on archaic stereotypes about women’s bodies and have significant adverse effects on women.