Humor
Set back in the war on pants
Written by Mark Nichols   

According to a report by the Associated Press, a judge in Florida has decided a law banning sagging pants in one local town is unconstitutional after a teenager spent a night in jail.

Julius Hart, 17, was charged recently after an officer said he spotted the teenager riding his bicycle while exposing an estimated 4 to 5 inches of blue-and-black boxer shorts.

The youth was determined to be in violation of the local saggy-pants law’s clause on acceptable underwear visibility.

Hart’s public defender, Carol Bickerstaff, urged the judge hearing the case to strike down the sagging-pants law, telling him, “Your honor, we now have the fashion police.” Circuit Judge Paul Moyle ruled that the law was unconstitutional based on “the limited facts” of the case, but the charge hasn’t yet been dropped.

Voters in Riviera Beach, Florida approved the local law last March. A first offense for sagging pants carries a $150 fine or community service, and “habitual offenders” face the possibility of jail time.

Bickerstaff said she wants the city to drop the law regardless of different ideas about what’s proper attire.

“The first time I saw this particular fashion, I disliked it,” she told the judge. “And then I realized I’m getting old.”