Men have a constitutional right to take pictures under women’s skirts. Yup. That’s what the Massachusetts courts have determine after one Michael Robertson was caught routinely taking pictures and videos up the skirts of women. It even has a name: upskirting.
The Supreme Judicial Court overruled a lower court decision that had upheld charges against Michael Robertson, who was arrested in August 2010 by transit police who set up a sting after getting reports that he was using his cellphone to take photos and video up female riders’ skirts and dresses.
Robertson had argued that it was his constitutional right to do so…..
“A female passenger on a MBTA trolley who is wearing a skirt, dress or the like covering these parts of her body is not a person who is ‘partially nude,’ no matter what is or is not underneath the skirt..”
Link is here.
But this is absurd: she IS partially nude under her clothing, even if she isn’t when you don’t look up her skirt! The picture Robertson took is not of her fully clothed.
People are fully clothed when the TSA conducts whole body scans in airports (a practice that’s largely ended), and yet the pictures would be of the person naked. If you can be partially naked when an instrument sees through your clothes, then you can be partially naked when a cell phone is held under your skirt. Do we really have to get philosophical about these terms…?
Meanwhile, they’re busy trying to pass a law against upskirting in MA. So are guys in Boston busy getting all the constitutional shots they can in the mean time?
Chris Dearborn, a law professor at Suffolk University in Boston, said the court’s ruling served as a signal to the legislature to act fast, but also likely had Peeping Toms briefly “jumping for joy”. Link is here.
Jumping for joy at violating a woman’s privacy? What kind of Neanderthals are in Boston these days?
Seems like upskirting is back in the news, this time in Georgia. Under your skirt is not really a private place, after all. http://time.com/4422772/upskirt-photos-harassment/
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