Women Exposing Breasts In Public Is Illegal, MN Court Rules

ST. PAUL, MN — Women exposing their breasts in public is categorically different than men exposing their chests under state law, the Minnesota Court of Appeals said Monday in affirming a lower court's ruling.

The case before the court involved a woman convicted of indecent exposure after police said she was walking around the parking lot of a Kwik Trip convenience store in Rochester, Minnesota with her breasts fully exposed in July 2021.

During the evening in question, officers arrived and saw Eloisa Plancarte — whom one of the officers recognized her from engaging in the same conduct earlier that week — walking in the lot with her shirt pulled up and her breasts fully exposed, according to police.

After she was charged with indecent exposure, Plancarte moved for the district court to dismiss the charges, arguing that her breasts are not "private parts" under the indecent exposure statute and that prosecuting her for going topless but not prosecuting men who go topless violates the Equal Protection Clause.

The district court rejected those arguments and found Plancarte and convicted her of the charge. Plancarte appealed the decision, this time arguing there is insufficient evidence to prove she violated the indecent-exposure statute and that prosecuting her for exposing her breasts violates her constitutional right to equal protection.

In their ruling Monday, the state's Court of Appeals rejected those arguments, stating that "Because a woman’s fully exposed breasts are 'private parts; under the statute and intentionally exposing them in the parking lot of a convenience store constitutes willful and lewd exposure, we reject her insufficient-evidence argument. And because a woman fully exposing her breasts is not similarly situated with a man exposing his chest, we reject her equal protection argument."

Plancarte was sentenced to 90 days in the Olmsted County Jail.