The plaintiffs’ petition to the U.S. Supreme Court in a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Ocean City’s topless ordinance has been denied.
Filed in December, the petition asked the nation’s highest court to review an Aug. 4 federal appeals court ruling that upheld as constitutional Ocean City’s ordinance banning women from going topless on the beach.
The petition argued “the ordinance codifies longstanding discriminatory and sexist ideology.”
The town filed a waiver Jan. 6 indicating it did not plan to file a response to the petition, and a Feb. 22 docket entry shows the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
The lawsuit, initially filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in January 2018, argued the town’s ordinance violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, as well as the Maryland Constitution’s Declaration of Rights.
The plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction to stop the resort town from enforcing the ordinance. A federal judge denied that motion in December 2018 after hearing testimony from Ocean City officials and a human sexuality expert.
Background on the case:
Could Ocean City’s topless ordinance head to the Supreme Court? The latest legal battle
Ocean City’s topless ban is upheld by appeals court
Ocean City topless lawsuit: Appeals court weighs equal protection and moral sensibilities
That same judge ruled in favor of Ocean City again in April 2020, granting the town’s motion for summary judgment.
The plaintiffs appealed that decision to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing the lower court should not have allowed two Ocean City officials to testify as experts and “abused its discretion” in excluding testimony from the plaintiffs’ human sexuality expert.
After the appeals court denied their petition for a rehearing, the plaintiffs tried to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court with a petition that’s now been denied.
