From: middleto@poincare.ucsd.edu (Tom Middleton ; System Manager)
Newsgroups: rec.nude
Subject: Re: Nudity in California
Date: 15 Dec 1992 19:09:47 GMT
Organization: Institute for NonLinear Science, UCSD
NNTP-Posting-Host: poincare.ucsd.edu

In article <> dza@unixland.natick.ma.us (David Archer) writes:
>My real question, though, concerns the legality of Nudity in 
>California.  Is it *really* legal to walk around buck naked on
>city streets, college campuses, etc?  If it is, then why the
>comments about "got away with", or "weren't apprehended"?  And I
>wonder why people haven't been going naked all along?

Simple nudity is NOT illegal under California STATE law.  "Lewd" nudity
IS illegal under Ca. STATE law.  So when people say 'he got away with it'
they mean no one interpreted the nudity as being lewd.

Local ordinances vary.  Some localities (counties, cities) have enacted
their own ordinances against nudity, others have not.  For instance, San
Diego city does have an ordinance regulating simple nudity.  This
ordinance is NOT enforced on Blacks Beach.  Interestingly enough what
most people call Blacks Beach is actually the southern portion of Torrey
Pines State Beach.  Because it is a state beach the city ordinance is not
in effect.  However, the state parks does have a rule against nudity and
you can be cited for violating that rule.  BUT, the state parks policy
is not to cite people unless a complaint is filed and even then if the
offender covers up there will not be a citation.

There are also many acres of federally owned land here under the control
of the national parks system.  They tend to deal with nudity in the same
manner as the state parks people.  Last summer I was camping on national
parks land in Riverside county when approached by a ranger.  He explained
that what I was doing was illegal under COUNTY regulations but since he
was federal and I was not violating any federal regulations by being nude
he wasn't even going to ask me to cover up.  He did say I should keep an
eye out for the sheriff but I knew the sheriff had no interest in coming
out to where I was.  It is questionable as to whether or not federal
authorities even have the right to enforce local laws.  I suppose in the
worst case, if the ranger had been totally against nudity, he could have
filed a complaint as a citizen and then called in the sheriff to bust me.
Of course, that brings up the question as to whether or not local ordinances
are enforceable on federal land.

Ready for more?  Rumor has it that at least one county which believed it
had a problem with nude beach users wrote an ordinance against it which
backfired.  Apparently they attempted to make the ordinance real clear
that they were going after beach nudity.  Doing so left nudity throughout
the rest of the county legal under the ordinance they wrote because it
only specified beach nudity.  This is only a rumor, I don't know the 
county involved but suspect they have revised their ordinance anyway.

So, did that answer your question or are you more confused now?  Just
keep in mind there are state laws, county laws and city laws as well
as rules and regulations of various governing agencies such as federal,
state, county and city parks and others.  If one doesn't get you, another
will try.

Does anybody think this topic is worth cross-posting to misc.legal?
Or maybe we should just invite some of them to join us here for a while.

-- 
===============================================================================
Thomas Earl Middleton		| Camping Bares:  "An Anarchist Disorganization
aka Happy Bare			| Dedicated to the Destruction of the Fabric of
middleto@poincare.ucsd.edu	| Our Society"