Judge Rules Naked Airport Display Falls Under Free Speech

David Nogueras | July 18, 2012 1:03 p.m. | Updated: July 19, 2012 1:16 p.m. | Portland, OR

A Multnomah County judge has ruled yesterday that a Portland man was engaged in protected free speech when he took off all his clothes at a Portland International Airport security checkpoint this spring. John Brennan stripped after reportedly getting fed up with what he saw as overly invasive screening procedures.

The judge acquitted Brennan on a single charge of indecent exposure.

A Portland city ordinance prohibits the exposure of one's private parts in public places.

But Brennan's attorney, Michael E. Rose, argued that doesn't trump the freedoms afforded Oregonians by Article 1, section 8 of the state Constitution.

""No law shall be passed restraining the free expression of opinion or restricting the right to speak write or print freely on any subject whatever" And what the judge found was that to the extent that ordinance would infringe on those expressive freedoms, the ordinance simply is not permitted to go there," said Rose.

Rose called the ruling a victory for free speech. But he also added that in terms of precedent, it won't be binding. That's because in Oregon, Circuit Courts are at the bottom of the court hierarchy.

2012 OPB

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Judge Rules Naked Airport Display Falls Under Free Speech