The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled on the topic of indecent exposure in deciding State of Minnesota v. Plancarte earlier this month. Describing its decision as a “close issue,” the Court determined that a woman’s breasts are in fact “lewd,” when publicly exposed-aside from breastfeeding.
In the opinion, the Court acknowledges that the determination of woman’s breasts as “private parts” is not uniform throughout the country or even within the state. It concedes that the dictionary defines “private parts” as genitalia, or external sex organs, which breasts are not. Despite these considerations, the Court concludes that a clause from the applicable statute Minn. Stat. 617.23, subd. 4 provides clarity on this topic, and uses it for the basis of this decision.
The statute in question, Minn. Stat. 617.23, subd. 4 provides that “’it is not a violation of this [indecent exposure] section for a woman to breastfeed.’” Judge Kevin Ross, writing for the Court, opines that the legislature’s intent by qualifying this provision was to both create an exception for breastfeeding women and to solidify the State’s determination that breasts are private parts, and qualify as lewd conduct if publicly exposed, in violation of the Minnesota statute prohibiting indecent exposure.
Judge Bratvold’s dissent poses an interesting counterargument to the Court’s interpretation of the statute’s breastfeeding provision. Bratvold challenges the idea that the legislature “intended to criminalize exposed breasts because it adopted a breastfeeding exemption,” by pointing out that an explicit provision for the protection of specific conduct, i.e., breastfeeding, does not necessarily implicate nude breasts as “lewd” merely because they are not involved in breastfeeding.
Despite the demonstrated ambiguity regarding the application of breasts to Minnesota’s indecent exposure statute, the Court’s decision in Plancarte implicates breasts as “private parts.” Public exposure of such “private parts” is effectively “lewd conduct,” prohibited by Minnesota law, under Plancarte.
Challenges to this ruling can be expected in the future, but changing the criminal classification of breasts will first require clarification of the language within Minn. Stat. 617.23, by the state legislature.