Kyllo: Taking the 5th on the 4th

[Ray Dillinger]

On Tue, 3 Jul 2001, Jim Choate wrote:

>On Tue, 3 Jul 2001, Tim May wrote:
>
>> The whole issue of "going masked" is a murky one, legally.
>
>No, it isn't. While police certainly need 'probably cause' to institute a
>search there are NO (zero, nadah, nil, nul, none) requirements on citizens
>to wear any particular part or type of clothing (or not wear it even). Any
>such law would violate the 1st.

So I can go out in public nude, and not expect to be arrested?  
Wrong. 

While, in absolute terms, the right to free expression ought to 
include the right to nudity, in practice it does not.  As a male, 
I am *required*, by the state, to wear something that covers up 
the dangly bits when I go out in public.  

The state also refuses to license establishments to serve food 
unless those establishments have a clear policy refusing admittance 
to barefoot people.  Does the state require me to wear shoes, 
or is it their puppets the shopkeepers who do so?  Does it matter?
NO.

Shoes are also required for all riders of state-sponsored public 
transit.  

I support the right of antisocial people to smear themselves with 
green jello and run naked with scissors around the block flapping 
their arms and shouting "splee three frooks!" if they want to, but 
the state does not agree.  

There are also types of clothing that I am forbidden by the state 
to wear; I had a friend in Kansas City who cross-dressed once and 
got busted for -- I kid you not -- "Intent to defraud."  Since he 
was wearing a full beard at the time, I don't know anyone who'd 
have fallen for his supposed fraud, but let us just say that if 
you are a man dressed in women's clothing, the law enforcement 
agencies of a lot of places will go out of their way to find a law 
to charge you with.  Unconstitutional?  Sure.  Standard Practice? 
Absolutely. 

Don't go spouting off that these laws *don't* exist just because 
they *ought* not exist.  Someone who doesn't know you may actually 
believe you and wind up in jail.

				Bear