Government Regulation of Dress Codes
Jasper County, South Carolina, is soon to be the latest to enact an unconstitutional ordinance protecting us all from the danger of sagging pants.
Jasper County Councilman LeRoy Blackshear proposed the ordinance in June. It would ban anyone from appearing in public “wearing his or her pants more than three (3) inches below his or her hips and thereby exposing his or her skin or intimate clothing.”
Some councilmen expressed concerns about whether government should be in the business of enforcing dress codes. Blackshear, however, believes it is in our best interests:
“Some people are saying that government doesn’t have any place to tell people how to dress if they’re not buying their clothes. But government makes other laws about seat belts, open-container laws and DUI. All these are for benefit of our citizens,” he said.
What is wrong with this picture? Let’s begin with asking who does this law affect? 9 out of 10 persons wearing sagging pants are black youth. It is a current style, fad, or whatever you want to call it, and any law such as this is going to have a disproportionate impact on black persons. Not that most criminal laws are not already disproportionately enforced against minorities, but this law is actually aimed at black youth. Secondly, the law is unconstitutional on its face. Under our State Constitution, local municipalities cannot criminalize conduct that is not already criminal under state law. Continue reading the article on the South Carolina Criminal Defense Blog…
