Knoxville sexting case embraces 'free the nipple' message

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Knoxville sexting case embraces ‘free the nipple’ message

Grant Rodgers , grodgers@dmreg.com 6:43 p.m. CST November 11, 2016

The message of the “free the nipple” campaign is coming to the federal courthouse in Des Moines.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa announced Friday it is joining a federal lawsuit brought in September against Marion County Attorney Ed Bull for threatening to bring a sexual exploitation charge against a teenage girl who sent two suggestive photos of herself to a high school classmate. The lawsuit asked a judge to block Bull from prosecuting the teen, claiming that the photos were protected free speech under the First Amendment because they were not obscene. Neither photo contained nudity.

Neither photo contained nudity.

An amended complaint announced by the civil liberty group embraces the ethos of the “free the nipple” movement, which argues that laws used to punish women for exposing their chests — when men can do so without consequence — are outdated, discriminatory and violate the equal protection clause enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

“This lawsuit is the result of efforts made by my office to respond to a situation where numerous juveniles had exchanged sexually explicit photographs,” Bull said in a September statement. “Rather than take every juvenile to court, I looked for a solution that would help them learn from their mistakes and hopefully prevent their behavior from being repeated, while allowing them to avoid having a criminal or juvenile conviction or even a charge on their record.”

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